Regression
by Amber Skye
Summary: COMPLETE: It seemed like nothing at first. A little strange, perhaps, but hardly something that Xana would bother with. They decided to investigate anyway, just to be safe…and quickly discovered that it was the worst thing they could have possibly done
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer - **I do not own Code Lyoko.

_It seemed like nothing at first. A little strange,but hardly something that Xana would bother with. They decided to investigate anyway, just to be safe…and quickly discovered that it was the worst thing they could have possibly done…_

**CODE LYOKO**

**: Regression :**

_by Ambre Skye_

On a parallel plane of existence, a strange mind performed analyses and calculations, lines of code and binary flickering rapidly across a nonexistent surface, interrupted occasionally by coherent lines of text that resembled remnants of the thought processes of something biological...

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Probability: Exceeded

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Reason: Undetermined

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Variable: Unknown

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Records: Inconclusive

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_00: Failure_

_01: Failure_

_02: Failure_

_03: Failure_

_04: Failure_

_05: Failure_

_06: Failure_

_07: Failure_

_08: Failure_

_09: Failure_

_10: Failure_

_11: Failure_

_12: Failure_

_13: Failure_

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_15: Failure_

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_18: Failure_

_19: Failure_

_20: Failure_

_21: Failure_

_22: Failure_

_23: Failure_

_24: Failure_

_25: Failure_

_26: Failure_

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Perhaps… 

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…_it is time to regress…_

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Retrieve: Digital Materialization Sequence

_Initiate _

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Expand: Digital Materialization Sequence

_Initiate _

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Retrieve: Biological Merger Sequence

_Initiate _

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Retrieve: Virtual Merger Sequence

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Combine: Digital Materialization Sequence

_Combine: Biological Merger Sequence _

_Combine: Virtual Merger Sequence _

_Initiate _

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Processing…

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Processing…

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From within the nonexistence, a swirl of thick, dark matter began to move fluidly, shaping its substance. The cloud began to condense, forming something recognizable. Arms, hands, legs, a torso, and a face, with shadowed, still-transparent features creating a twisted, grimacing visage. "Yes…" A hissing whisper of a voice sprang to existence, moving with its new embodiment and issuing forth as visible lips turned upward in a strange show of satisfaction. The swirling black fog within the figure continued to thicken, becoming more dense, more solid…more human.

The being gazed down at his new body as the black transparency began to fade, giving way to a solid tone of flesh. Eyes shone dark green, blinking through hanging locks of hair that reflected the same hue, and highlighted with remnants of the blackness. Strange, elongated ears poked their pointed tips out to the side of his head. Then a mark appeared, ominous it is familiarity. It settled in the center of his forehead like a third eye, burning its existence into the newly formed skin.

He lifted a hand, curling the fingers experimentally and tightening them into a hard fist. Fingernails dug into the skin, creating an odd sensation. When he unclenched his fist, small red crescent marks remained on his palm, and the tips of his nails were tinged with crimson. The voice spoke again, slithering through wicked, grinning teeth. "No more games, little heroes…"

-----------------------

Doors banged open and the hallways became cluttered with noisy, happy children as the school bell rang for the final time that day, indicating the end of classes. The din of animated conversations and crowded clusters of youths were all too typical of the normal school day.

To one side of a certain hallway, three boys relaxed against the wall, making idle talk while awaiting the arrival of their fourth member. With all the noise surrounding them, they didn't worry about speaking quietly. And besides, should anyone happen to overhear part of the unique conversation, they probably wouldn't understand it anyway.

Odd slumped down, resting between floor and wall, looking relaxed. "So after Yumi got booted back to the real world and Aelita made a run for the tower, there were still three Kankrelat and a Megatank left. There I was, all by myself with only twenty life points and two arrows left. The Kankrelat were all circling me and backing me towards the drop-off into the void and the Megatank was charging up for the kill! But I was one step ahead. I do a one-eighty back flip, and in midair, kick the nearest Kankrelat over the edge and into digital void oblivion! So then as soon as I land, I fire off one of my arrows smack into the next Kankrelat and boom! Now there are only two monsters left." Odd raised two fingers in the middle of his narrative for emphasis. "But I still only have twenty life points, and now I'm down to one arrow. So I'm thinking, I can't take out both of them with one arrow, and I can only survive two more hits at the most! And that's when I got my stroke of genius—"

"We know, Odd," Jeremie interrupted with a wry smile. "You've told this story every day since we stopped Xana's attack last week."

"Well it's a good one!" the smaller boy argued.

Ulrich wasn't really paying attention to either of them as he glanced down the hall. "You can finish telling it again later, Odd. Here comes Yumi."

The familiar figure of a tall, black-clad girl made its way towards the three boys. As Yumi approached, they could see that her head was tilted slightly down, as though she were angry about something. Several red scratches were evident around her face, neck, and forearms, while one sleeve sported a rather noticeable rip.

Odd raised an eyebrow. "Whoa, Yumi, what happened to you?"

The dark haired girl gave him a dry look. "A stupid cat attacked me."

The three boys stared at her blankly.

"Well it did!" Yumi insisted, looking insulted. "I was walking through the courtyard to meet you guys over here, and it jumped me from a tree!"

There was an awkward pause for a moment before Jeremie broke the silence. "Uh, no offense, Yumi," he raised a hand hesitantly to rub the back of his neck in a skeptical fashion. "But cats don't usually attack people from trees."

She nodded at him seriously. "I know, that's why I want to ask you if you've noticed any indication that Xana might have activated a tower."

Jeremie's eyebrow shot up. "You think Xana activated a tower so he could take control of a stray cat?"

Odd's face was starting to crack into a grin as he leaned towards Ulrich with a mock whisper. "Poor Yumi. I always knew she'd go off the deep end one day…"

She shot him a withering glare. "Fine. How would you explain it, wise guy?"

Odd held up both hands in surrender, looking confused. "Yeesh, take it easy, Yumi, you know I'm just kidding!"

She rolled her eyes and ignored him, turning again to Jeremie. "Well? Has anything happened in Lyoko?"

"No. At least, there's nothing concerning Xana," Jeremie replied seriously, "He's been quiet since we stopped his attack last week. But I have started testing a new virtual sequence for Aelita." He smiled slightly and pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Since we can't permanently materialize her in human form right now, I'm trying to design the extra sequence to accept her configurations."

Odd raised an eyebrow.

"An extra life, if you want to simplify the concept that way," Jeremie explained further. "If anything goes wrong and she loses too many life points, I can download her essence onto the spare sequence, as a kind of temporary body. Just until her true self has a chance to reform."

"So, you're making an extra one of those Lyoko cards for her?" Yumi tilted her head.

"Actually," Jeremie launched into an explanation, "there are two different types of Lyoko cards, because there are two programs that activate when you're virtualized. First of all, your physical essence has to be downloaded into the computer through a Digital Materialization Sequence. I guess you could call it a blueprint. It registers and outlines the virtual form that you'll have when you enter, but if that were the only program we used during virtualization, you'd enter Lyoko looking just like you do here. That's your basic Lyoko card, no swords or fans or special abilities like telekinesis. I used one of those when I went into Xana's alternate reality to get you guys out."

"Then a different program adds the special abilities, right?" Yumi inquired.

"Through the second program, the Virtual Form Sequence. It takes the basic blueprint from the Digital Materialization Sequence that you've already been downloaded into, and adds to it. And it's that complete form that materializes inside Lyoko." Jeremie pushed lightly at his glasses again. "I just merged those two programs into one process, so you enter Lyoko immediately in your virtualized forms without going through two downloads."

"So, are you making extra blueprints or extra virtual forms?" Ulrich raised an eyebrow.

"Blueprints," Jeremie answered immediately. "I'm only creating more basic cards, because they're the only ones that sustain damage. The virtual forms are just extra weapons and abilities that are laid over the basic structure. And if their abilities are exhausted, like if Odd runs out of arrows, I can reload them pretty easily. It's the digital blueprint structure—the basic card—that has the limited life points. In Aelita's case, her basic digital structure and virtual abilities are connected, like when she uses her gaiakinesis and it depletes her life points. Having an extra basic card to use should give her more freedom to use her abilities, and she won't have to worry as much about sustaining damage during battles."

"Ah," Ulrich nodded appreciatively. "And you're making them just for Aelita?"

Jeremie smiled knowingly. "Don't worry, I've got a copy of Aelita's spare sequence and I'll be ready to start adapting it to create multiple sequences for you and Odd and Yumi, too. Eventually, we may not have to worry about life points at all. The spare sequences would replace each other automatically while the damaged one regenerates."

"Cool!" Odd looked excited. "Unlimited monster-vanquishing capabilities! We'll be practically invincible!"

His exclamations were interrupted a moment later, as a sickeningly sweet voice sounded from nearby. "Hiiiiiiiii, Ulrich!" The long vowels were drawn out in a high-pitched, girlish swoon.

Ulrich winced visibly.

Sissi sashayed her way prissily towards the object of her affections, giving a characteristic hair toss and know-it-all smile as she did so. Standing before him, arms crossed in the usual fashion, Sissi eyed him like predator that was about to make a kill. "So, Ulrich," she began, the intonation in her voice still swaying up and down like waves. It was almost enough to make one feel seasick. "Are you ready to go?"

Ulrich blinked up at her, one eyebrow cocked. "Beg pardon?"

Sissi ran a hand femininely through her dark hair. "Oh, you're being silly again, Ulrich. I know that you'd never forget our date!"

At the mention of the word 'date', Yumi's eye twitched. She looked down at Ulrich, an expression on her face saying that she was trying to hide any fury or shock. "Date! What date?"

Clueless, Ulrich shrugged. "I have no idea what she's talking about."

Sissi placed hands on hips and her expression darkened. "Don't play coy with me just because Yumi's here, Ulrich!" She pointed an accusing finger and poked it at his chest. "I don't know why you think you need to keep our relationship a secret from her, but I'll print off that email and show it to all your little friends to prove it if I have to!"

"What email?" Ulrich demanded.

"The one you sent me this morning asking me on a date, you moron!" Sissi fumed.

Odd grinned. "Ah, Sissi. The only girl we know who can say 'yes' to her date and insult him at the same time."

"I'm not her date!" Ulrich argued.

Sissi steamed at Odd. "You're so childish," she lifted her nose in the air and tried to look maturely superior. "Ulrich! Aren't you going to defend me?"

At this, Ulrich ceased to look confused. He cocked his eyebrow again and gave a wry smile, unable to resist the opportunity to poke fun at her comment "What for? You're stuck up enough to stick up for yourself!"

The Snob Wonder gave an involuntary growl of frustration, glaring at each of them in turn. "You think you're all so clever! But just you wait…someday, Ulrich, you'll come crawling to me!" With another hair toss, she stormed away.

When she was out of hearing range, Yumi turned to Ulrich. "Why'd you send her an email?"

Ulrich held his hands up defensively. "I didn't!"

Odd blinked at them. "That's kind of weird, Sissi getting an email that you never sent. Maybe Xana's up to something after all."

"It doesn't make any sense though," Jeremie argued, logical as always. "Taking control of a stray cat and faking an email from Ulrich to Sissi? There's no connection."

"Can't you just make sure?" Yumi asked. "I mean, it's not going to hurt anything to double-check with Aelita, right?"

Jeremie shrugged. "I guess you're right." He gathered his book bag and prepared to leave. "I wanted to work more on the extra sequences anyway. I'll ask her as soon as I get back to my room."

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	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes -- **Wow, such wonderful and encouraging feedback for my first chapter. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it, especially since this is my first venture into Code Lyoko fanfiction writing, and I've seen less than half the series. I wanted to mention briefly that I use the French names for some of Xana's monsters; I looked them up once on a French site, before I knew what they were really called in English, and that's what I've stuck with. The Kankrelat are Roachsters (Odd mentioned them in the first chapter) and Frolions are Wasps. The other monsters are basically the same, I think.

**: Chapter Two :**

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Aelita crouched in the familiar surroundings of the tower, her eyes closed to the pale, soothing blue lights. Her small hands were held delicately against one another, her feet folded lightly beneath her figure as she remained in meditation.

Lyoko swirled around her, its essence resonating through her being as she opened the connection that land and humanoid shared. Aelita let her mind flow, focusing and releasing, feeling her home through the sights and sounds that she knew by heart. The silence of cloud and mountain, the warmth of heavy trees and moss, the light that encompassed dust and sand, and the smooth evening reflected in ice. And beneath it all, the eternal shimmer of a shifting void that echoed restlessly as it caught the falling pulse…

_A pulse?_

In the next instant that her eyes blinked open, the lighted wave of sound had already faded. Aelita remained motionless, her pointed ears almost quivering as she waited, wondering if the passing whisper had been real.

Nothing touched her senses save the pale blue silence.

"Aelita?"

The voice startled her out of her meditative frame of mind, bringing her focus back to reality.

"Aelita, are you there?"

"Of course I am." Releasing her body from the disciplined position, she turned with a grin to open a window screen in midair, watching as Jeremie's familiar face emerged. "Hello, Jeremie!"

He grinned back at her, adjusting the microphone around his head a little awkwardly. "Hi. Am I bothering you? You seem kind of surprised to see me."

"You never bother me, Jeremie." Aelita gave a genuine smile. "I was just meditating, that's all. And I wasn't expecting you to be back from classes so soon."

"Oh, all right." He began to type, his eyes darting rapidly from computer codes to Aelita's window as he began the multi-tasking process of programming and carrying out a conversation, something he was well practiced in. "Well, classes are over for the day, so I wanted to work more on the extra sequences." The lines of code and programming reflected on the lenses of his glasses, slipping through the mirror image in reverse. Then, through the glass and reflections, Jeremie's eyes narrowed as they skimmed the information, spotting something odd. He glanced at her as he inquired, "Hey, Aelita? Have you made any recent changes to your materialization program?"

She blinked at him from the screen. "No, why?"

Jeremie's brow furrowed. "It's just not the way I left it. Like it's been expanded some." He rubbed at his forehead. "Maybe I just don't remember doing it."

From the monitor, Aelita looked surprised. "Your memory is malfunctioning? Is it because of your lack of regeneration?"

He had to give a grin at that. "I guess I have been losing a lot of sleep over it lately. You're right, that's probably all it is. I must have been too tired when I worked on it last." Then remembrance lit his features and the smile faded slightly. "Oh, by the way, Yumi and Ulrich were a little worried this morning that Xana might be up to something. You haven't sensed anything inside Lyoko, have you?"

The humanoid blinked. "Actually, I thought I heard one of Xana's pulses just a minute ago. It was so faint though, I wasn't sure."

"Huh," Jeremie looked thoughtful. "Well, we can never be too careful with Xana. I guess we should double check, just to make sure."

Aelita nodded in agreement. "All right. I'll start looking for any signs of an activated tower."

"I'm heading for the factory," Jeremie stated as he began to type a shutdown sequence into his own computer. "I'll contact you again once I'm there, and we'll scan for anything out of the ordinary." He gave a quick wave of departure as the window closed and their connection severed. Pulling the headset off, Jeremie placed it next to the keyboard and turned to leave, heading outside and towards the underground tunnel that would lead him to the factory.

-------------------------

Aelita exited the tower, her body moving easily through the apparent solid wall. Once outside, she cast a glance, scanning her surroundings with sight and sound for any signs of hostile activity. The mountainscape that greeted her was stark and bold in its silence, the cloud forms whispering transparently against the looming shadows of stone.

For several minutes Aelita remained motionless, her senses honing into the reality of her world. When nothing touched her senses save the tranquility, she turned. There was nothing in this region of Lyoko.

She re-entered the tower to transport to the forest region, and when she emerged again, she had phased into the brighter, less spacious realm. The thick, green carpeting of grass and moss was firm beneath her feet, and from it the stoic trees extended their trunks, stretching to meet the leafy canopy above. Shafts of sunlight filtered their way through the air, their gold hue tinged with pale green, casting a warm glow throughout the region.

Aelita took a few steps forward, again extending the range of her senses and tapping into the essence that was Lyoko. Almost immediately a faint ripple of light and sound struck her, and she knew what it was. Jeremie was right—Xana had activated a tower somewhere nearby.

Aelita broke into a light run, following the echoing waves as they pulsed through Lyoko with an unusual regularity. She proceeded cautiously but quickly, often moving behind the shelter of trees as the pulses became louder and more frequent. Many times she had pursued Xana, following his trail towards a tower, only to be ambushed by his monsters. So far this time she was lucky—nothing emerged to block her progress.

Then she spotted it, on the near horizon, the sunset glow of the activated tower contrasting the dark greens and browns that made its surroundings. Aelita could just make out its summit between the tree trunks and canopies.

And then her luck ran out.

With an involuntary gasp, Aelita turned and ran back the way she had come, hoping that her presence had not been detected. Calling out softly, she desperately hoped that Jeremie was at the factory and able to hear her…

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Jeremie heard Aelita calling from the computer speakers as the elevator doors opened. Surprised that she was looking for him, he crossed the room quickly, jumping into his seat and snapping the headset over his ear, his hands darting immediately to the keyboard as he began to type furiously. "Aelita?"

"_Jeremie! Thank goodness you're there."_ her familiar voice tinged with uncertainty and desperation as it sounded over the headset, and her usual image window didn't come up automatically on the screen.

"I just got here," he explained. "What's wrong?"

"_I found the tower, but Xana's monsters are everywhere! I've never seen so many!"_

Eyes widening, Jeremie pulled open a grid on his screen, scanning for information. "Aelita, where are you?"

"_I'm in one of the deactivated towers on the other side of the Forests. I was going to meet you near the infected tower like we usually do, but I couldn't even get close, there were so many—"_

"Don't worry about it, Aelita." Jeremie reassured her and began accessing communications. "Stay where you are, I'm going to call the others."

-------------------------

The elevator made its distinct whirring sound of activation, the doors grating slightly as they opened. Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd stepped into the computer room, moving towards Jeremie as he gestured to them from his chair.

"Okay, what's the problem?" Odd asked, taking a stand behind Jeremie's shoulder, peering at the screen.

"Xana, what else?" Jeremie pointed at the screen. "Aelita found the activated tower, but there's a ton of monsters around it." He glanced at his friends. "And I'm not exaggerating."

"Whoa…" Ulrich's mouth dropped as he stared at the statistics on the screen. "Twelve Krabes, three Megatanks and fifteen Kankrelat…"

"Say _what?_" Odd exclaimed in disbelief.

Jeremie nodded grimly. "There are thirty monsters guarding that tower."

Yumi leaned over him, glaring at the screen. "You can't be serious!"

"I wish I wasn't," Jeremie muttered darkly. "This is going to be difficult…"

"I don't get it," Ulrich folded his arms, his brow furrowing. "Nothing's happening! Xana's protecting a tower with thirty monsters, but there isn't even a disaster going on that we need to prevent?"

"Unless you count the email he sent to Sissi. That could have been a disaster. For you, anyway." Odd put in.

Jeremie turned to face his companions seriously. "If Xana has pulled out this many monsters for one tower, he _must_ be planning something huge. I say we stop him before he has the chance to get started on this one." He turned back to the computer to begin typing and prepare for transportation. "You three head down to the scanner room and get ready for virtualization. I'll materialize you near the deactivated tower; Aelita will meet you there."

-------------------------

Aelita emerged from the safety of the tower as three familiar figures solidified in midair, dropping the short distance to the ground before her.

Odd gave a grin and twitched his tail as he readied the arrow launcher on his wrist. "Okay Aelita, lead the way!"

The humanoid shook her head at his eagerness to fight. "I'm not sure if we'll be able to get close to the tower. There are so many monsters defending it…"

"So what do you suggest?" Ulrich raised an eyebrow, one hand resting on the hilt of his katana.

Aelita looked worried. "I don't know. Xana's never done anything like this. Even the pulsations aren't normal."

Yumi turned. "What do you mean?"

"They've been steady and rather weak," the humanoid blinked in response. "It almost feels like Xana is biding his time."

Ulrich gave a scrutinizing look at their surroundings, as though they were being watched. "What would he be waiting for?"

"For us to show up and give him a good thrashing, like always!" Odd was unperturbed. "I say we don't disappoint him."

"He's right," Ulrich agreed reluctantly. "There's not much else we can do, so we'd better not waste any time."

Aelita nodded grimly. "All right then, it's this way." She turned at a brisk jog down the pathway that would lead them to the infected tower.

The small group moved at a quick pace, covering a considerable distance without encountering any obstacles or resistance.

Odd glanced around as they ran. "This is weird…it's so quiet. Usually we're attacked right off. Where are all those monsters that you saw?"

"I told you, they're all gathered right around the tower," Aelita answered, pointing up ahead. "There!"

Her three companions slowed their pace involuntarily.

Sure enough, thirty of Xana's monsters milled about before the tower, the Kankrelat scuttling like lookouts while larger Megatanks rolled slowly back and forth like massive sentinels, occasionally opening to cast glances with their hidden eyes. Spindly Krabes strode through the apparent disorder, shifting on their gangly appendages.

Odd came to a standstill, gaping slightly. "Whoa…"

As though it had heard him, a Kankrelat scout turned its eye in their direction. It stood motionless for a moment, then began scuttling towards them at full speed, charging a laser. In the same instant, all the other monsters swiveled in their direction, alerted to their presence as one, as though linked by a hive mind.

"They've seen us!" Aelita shouted.

The group sprang into action as the first laser blast sailed towards them.

Yumi dashed out of the way, coming to a halt beside Ulrich. "We need a plan!"

"We're going to have to make it up as we go," Ulrich pulled out his katana, the blade ringing as it left the sheath. "Aelita, stay behind us until we can clear a way to the tower."

The humanoid nodded and backed out of range as the laser fire began in earnest.

Ulrich twisted his blade rapidly, moving it defensively up, across, and down to the side, reflecting a laser beam each time. Keeping the sword moving, he deflected two more blasts and dodged out of the way of a third. The monsters were too far off—all he could do for now was defend himself.

Yumi was having better luck with retaliation. Fan open in her grasp, she blocked two incoming lasers, then rolled evasively to one side, flinging the weapon with a twist of her wrist in the same motion. The fan whirled towards the line of monsters, sliding through a Kankrelat with a thin explosion. It continued its humming flight in a wide circle, clipping one of the legs out from under a Krabe. All this happened in an instant, and as Yumi came out of her evasive roll in a neat crouch, she raised a hand and caught the weapon solidly as it returned.

Odd side-jumped a laser, then slid on his knees beneath another. Back up on his feet in the next instant, he back flipped, ricocheted off the side of a tree and launched an arrow towards a Kankrelat in mid-flight. He landed in time to watch the explosion.

Ulrich deflected another blast and got lucky as it ricocheted into a nearby Kankrelat, striking one of the metal legs and causing the small monster to topple over. An instant later, Yumi's fan whirled towards the helpless target and finished the job.

There was the sound of lasers and a surprised cry of dismay from behind, and Ulrich whirled to see Aelita cornered against a tree by three Kankrelat, her right arm sparking from a hit. Forgetting the horde of monsters in front of the tower, Ulrich dashed towards Aelita. He leapt over the nearest Kankrelat from behind, simultaneously swinging his sword down through the virtual being in a strange, lethal version of leapfrog.

Ulrich landed easily and twisted on his heels, swinging the blade in a wide arc and shattering the second monster. Following through with the motion, Ulrich brought the momentum of the swing up and over his head, gripping the hilt with both hands and stabbing downward violently with the point at the remaining Kankrelat.

The sword impacted and a laser released in the same instant. Ulrich went flying backward from a direct hit to the chest as the Kankrelat exploded.

"Nnnggghh!" Ulrich landed hard on his back, his torso sparking from the hit.

Aelita stood over him, looking concerned. "Are you all right?"

He nodded and got to his feet, brow furrowed. "I'm fine, but how did those monsters get behind us?"

"I don't know," the humanoid shook her head. "They must have been hiding, waiting for us to get closer to the tower so they could attack from behind." Her features fell with worry. "Maybe there are more than we thought."

"Great," Ulrich rolled his eyes. "Just what we need."

Any further conversation was interrupted as Yumi's voice shouted at them, almost nagging in quality. "Ulrich!" she yelled, "A little help?"

Ulrich turned and ran back towards the tower to help Yumi and Odd, calling over his shoulder as he left, "Aelita, stay hidden until we can find a way to get through to the tower!"

Yumi fell to one knee as a laser blast struck her right leg. She grit her teeth and launched her fan viciously at the Krabe that had hit her. The weapon skimmed through the air in a graceful arc, curving too wide to strike its target. Yumi swore under her breath and dove to the ground as another laser fired at her head. Then she moved into a quick somersault that brought her back to her feet as her fan returned from its flight.

She pulled her arm back, ready to fling the weapon again, when a streak of bright gold skimmed across the corner of her eye. Ulrich sped past, using the momentum of his extra speed to launch himself into a high leap. He landed hard on the domed head of the Krabe, sword first. The being shattered beneath his feet, and he fell through the shards of scattered code back to the ground.

Unexpectedly, the group of monsters began to split as nearly half of them moved away from the tower. Within moments, Odd was surrounded by a dozen monsters, completely cut off from the path to the tower and his teammates.

"What's going on?" Ulrich shouted.

"I don't know!" Yumi ducked a laser blast and sent her fan flying, but the targeted Kankrelat scuttled nimbly out of the way. "It looks like they're going after Odd for some reason!"

Now virtually surrounded, Odd desperately tried to keep up with dodging the laser fire that was coming at him from all directions. He leapt upward, evading a volley from several Kankrelat, only to put himself in the line of fire from two of the Krabes. Both lasers impacted while he was still in midair, the force from the blasts knocking him backward several feet. He landed heavily, leaving a small skid mark. Before his figure had even stopped sparking from the damage, Odd was back on his feet and dodging away from more enemy fire.

Seeing a Kankrelat shift to aim at his head, Odd ducked and fell forward into a slide. The laser streaked overhead, missing by several inches. Odd twisted his body and came to a halt in a semi-kneeling position, leveling his wrist as the Kankrelat in question turned to follow his movement. "Heads up," he called to it sarcastically, releasing the arrow. He allowed himself a satisfied grin at the resulting explosion.

A jolt to his knee reminded him that he was still the target of a dozen hostile monsters.

Then Jeremie's voice filtered through Lyoko. _"Odd, Xana's monsters seem to be focusing on you. Be careful!"_

"Understatement of the year, Jeremie." Odd answered, then muttered to himself, "This is crazy! I don't have enough arrows to take out all of them!" Odd muttered. Then an idea struck him, and he gave a tiny smirk. "If I can't get them all, maybe I can get them to hit each other instead…"

Dashing out from behind the safety of the tree, he gave a leap, landing on top of the nearest Krabe before it had a chance to fire at him. Balancing himself on the moving creature, he turned to give a wave at the Megatank. "Yoo-hoo! Over here, stupid! Hit the nekko, win a prize!"

The Megatank turned and opened, glaring its eye in his direction. The energy began to build up, heightening to crimson fury as it pulsed and threatened to release at any moment.

The Krabe that Odd was clinging to shook and swayed on its legs, searching for a way to dislodge its occupant.

The Megatank fired.

Odd gave a leap, kicking himself away from the Krabe and flipping agilely through the air to land neatly several yards away.

Behind him, the Krabe found itself left alone in the unfortunate position of being in the Megatank's line of fire.

The Krabe exploded.

Odd turned on his heels, grinning as he aimed a wrist at the still-exposed symbol on the Megatank before it had a chance to recharge. "Ooh, sorry, you missed the target. But thanks for playing, here's a nice consolation prize…" The arrow flew and the Megatank exploded.

"Two monsters and only one arrow!" Odd grinned as he did another leap over a laser beam. "Did you see that, Jeremie?"

_"Odd, just concentrate on staying alive!" _

-------------------------


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes**: Heh, just a quick apology for the long wait between posts. Also, I hate writing fight scenes.

**: Chapter Three :**

----------------------------

Ulrich deflected the laser blast, a familiar bluish spark reflecting in the metal of his sword. Three more bolts followed, and he moved the metal of his weapon rapidly to compromise. Each laser was sent ricocheting harmlessly away. He darted forward, speed blurring his figure as he surged towards a pair of Kankrelat, driving his sword through one of them as he flew past.

Not bothering to watch the explosion, he continued his momentum, coming to a stop directly beneath a looming Krabe. Swinging outward with his weapon, Ulrich sliced two of the legs out from under the spindly creature, then lifted his blade aloft as it began to tip down on top of him. The metal creature fell, impaling itself as Ulrich's sword bit deep into the metal body. The Krabe exploded into nothing before it had a chance to hit the ground.

Yumi held her fan open, spinning it in her grasp to deflect three rapid laser blasts. "Ulrich!" she shouted over the noise of battle. "I can't get to Odd to help him!"

"It's no use worrying about Odd now," Ulrich called back, wincing as a laser evaded deflection and struck his shoulder. "There's no way we keep this up for much longer! We've got to get to the tower now, before we're forced to de-virtualize. Get Aelita and make a break for it, I'll cover you!"

Yumi sent her fan spinning into the nearest Kankrelat. It sliced cleanly through the eye, leaving the explosion in its wake. Yumi raised her hand to catch the fan as it whirled back like a boomerang. But where one Kankrelat was gone, two more scuttled forward to take its place. "We'll never make it, we're completely cut off!"

Ulrich grit his teeth as a laser struck his arm. "We have try!" He spun the blade, deflecting four more rapid shots.

Yumi turned her head for an instant to glance in his direction, sacrificing life points for the distraction. "But Ulrich, there's—"

"Don't waste time arguing," Ulrich hollered back at her. "Just do it!" Then, casting his shout in a different direction, he called, "Aelita, go with Yumi, now!"

He didn't wait to see if the girls obeyed his instructions. They would need every second he could give them. Facing the impossible horde before him, he chanced closing his eyes for an instant to find the concentration that would activate his other ability. He could almost feel is consciousness spreading as two more presences added to his own.

In the next instant, his eyes were open again, and out of the corner of each he could see a mirror image of himself. As one mind, both copies darted forward into the fray, streaking gold behind them as they drew enemy fire, deflecting and attacking as surely as if they had lives of their own. Almost immediately one of them disappeared, but Ulrich was already taking advantage of the distraction it had created.

----------------------------

Another Kankrelat fired, successfully sending the laser blast into its target's chest.

"Gaah!" Odd reeled from the hit and fell back into an awkward crouch, frustration in his face. "What's the deal with this 'gang up on Odd' day?"

_"Odd! Regroup with Ulrich and Yumi! You're losing life points too fast!"_ Jeremie's voice boomed over the landscape.

"You think I don't know that?" Odd ducked as another laser blast singed overhead. He rolled to the side and flicked his wrist, sending an arrow firing towards the offending monster, missing. "I can't get to them, I'm cut off!"

"_You have to get out of there somehow,"_ Jeremie's voice replied from nowhere. _"The other two Megatanks are closing in on your position with a pincer movement!"_

"Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Odd moaned, jumping a freeze beam and firing another arrow. "Both tanks! Wait, what the heck is a pincer movement?"

"_They're coming in from the left to cut off your escape route!"_

Odd glanced to his left, giving up another ten life points for the distraction as a laser struck his shoulder. Sure enough, the shadowed forms of two giant tanks were rolling towards him at an alarming rate. "Not that I don't appreciate the attention, Xana," he muttered to himself, "But this is getting ridiculous…"

Glancing at the monsters that surrounded him, he spotted a gap in the ranks and seized the opportunity. Sacrificing another arrow, Odd dispatched of another Kankrelat as it scuttled in front of his path. Leaping over the small explosion and the twitching metal limbs that remained, he dodged between two Krabes and took off running, away from the tower.

Jeremie's voice boomed over him. _"Odd! What are you doing?"_

"If Xana's monsters are all going to chase me, I might as well get them to chase me away from the tower," Odd shouted in reply. "Tell the others to get a move on; I'll keep the monsters distracted as long as I can!"

"_You won't last ten seconds with all those monsters on your tail! You're already down to twenty life points, and—"_

"I know what I'm doing, Jeremie!" Odd panted as he ran. He cast a glance backwards to see how many monsters were following him. The two Megatanks were picking up speed and gaining on him. Behind them he thought he caught sight of a few Kankrelat and at least one Crab. "That's it, guys, follow the leader…"

Turning his gaze ahead again, an idea struck him and he scanned the landscape, searching for something specific. A little ways up, the path split into two narrower walkways that curved away from each other. Directly ahead, at the point of the split, the earth dropped away, leaving a gaping hole that led inevitably down to the void. A laser struck him hard in the left knee, almost causing him to trip. As he struggled to regain his stride, Odd didn't have to look over his shoulder again to know that they were still following him.

Now Odd was drawing nearer to the void. He pelted forward, trying to draw more speed as the edge rushed towards him. He needed to keep going in the same straight direction, and hope that Xana's monsters were foolish enough to follow directly behind him. Faster, faster, until the last possible second and then, giving a giant leap, he catapulted into the air, sailing directly over the open drop to the void below. He stretched out his arms, extending the claws on his hands as he reached towards the opposite side of the gap. With a heavy thud, he fell into the edge, half dangling over the side as he dug his hands into the earth to keep himself from falling.

Behind him, one of the Megatanks had been traveling too quickly. Unable to stop its momentum, it sailed over the edge and downward into destruction.

As he scrambled back up onto solid ground, Odd looked back across the gap. The other Megatank remained, having been able to stop its advance safely on the other side. Behind it the Kankrelat and Krabes were catching up.

"Aww, man!" Odd gave a moan. "I only got one? Gaaaah!" He dodged to the side as laser fire suddenly erupted from across the gap.

The remaining Megatank was now working its way slowly around the gap, staying carefully on the narrow, solid path. It moved, stopped, opened, and swiveled as though looking for its prey.

Not wanting to give it the chance to secure him as a target, Odd began to run around the other side, back towards the crowd of Krabes and Kankrelat that were waiting for him. He ducked and rolled evasively to avoid the shower of laser fire that rained down on him. Breathless, he dashed behind the cover of a large tree, peeking back out to see that the Megatank was moving all the way around the circular path to cut him off. A few Kankrelat had also joined the larger monster in its migration to block Odd's escape route.

Odd grimaced, kicking himself for his stupidity. Now there was a mob of Krabes and Kankrelat in front of him, and a Megatank moving in behind him. In a few moments, he'd be stuck in the crossfire. He winced as laser after laser blasted into the tree he was trying to hide behind. A blackened chunk of wood flew loose from the side of the trunk, whizzing past Odd's ear and clattering to the ground a foot away.

"They're going to bring the whole tree down on top of me at this rate!" Odd muttered to himself, at a loss. Then a blinked, a sudden thought striking him. "Wait a second…" He took a half step away from the tree, still being careful to stay in its shelter. He checked his supply of arrows—five. Aiming straight into the trunk, he fired all of them rapidly into the wood, making a deep gouge. Satisfied with the damage he'd done, Odd leapt up onto the vertical wooden surface above the gouge he'd made, clinging to the trunk with his claws and scrabbling upward like a squirrel.

Several yards up, he stopped for a moment to look down at the assembled monsters. They were still firing at the base of the tree, thinking he was on the ground behind it. "Keep at it, guys…" Odd encouraged softly. He walked out carefully onto one of the larger, sturdier limbs, just a foot away from the trunk. Below, he could see the Megatank and the few Kankrelat that had followed it.

Jumping up and down violently, Odd waved and shouted. "Hey! Up here! Come on, you should know the standard procedure—get the cat out of the tree!"

The Megatank opened, and then rolled slightly backwards, turning its eye at an upward angle to regard the taunting figure above. Focusing on the target, it charged, fired—

—and fell short.

Odd was too high up, and out of range.

Undeterred, the Megatank decided to try a different course of action. It closed into a solid, shielded black orb and rolled forward, slamming into the base of the trunk.

The tree shuddered.

Odd clung firmly to the limb, determined not to fall off. Not yet, anyway. He looked down at the tree base, realizing that the Krabes and Kankrelat on the other side had stopped firing. Probably to avoid hitting their own Megatank.

The tree shuddered again as the Megatank slammed into it for the second time. Odd grit his teeth and hung on. "Come on, already!" he lectured the wood. "I did not waste my last five arrows to have this idea backfire on me!"

As if in response, the tree quaked as the Megatank hurled its bulk once more into the base. But this time, it did not stop shaking and regain stability. Weakened by the damage of laser fire on one side and Odd's arrows on the other, the wood at the base of the trunk began to snap under the Megatank's pressure. And the huge tree started to fall.

"Yes!" Odd whooped as he felt the tree shift beneath him, beginning its fall. He gripped the wood and tried to balance himself, letting out an involuntary yell of exhilaration and terror as it picked up speed.

Tipped in the opposite direction by the Megatank, the tree came crashing down directly on top of the group of Krabes and Kankrelat that had been blocking the way back to the tower.

Just before it hit the ground, Odd jumped away with as powerful a spring as he could manage, tumbling to a hard but safe landing on the solid path.

Behind him the tree slammed violently into the earth, crushing any unfortunate monster that had been beneath it. And under its massive weight, the very ground began to crack and give way.

With a horrendous noise, the earth crumbled and the tree fell completely through. One Krabe that had been lucky enough to avoid being crushed by the fall now scrabbled for purchase as the ground collapsed beneath them. Unable to scramble away from the treacherous edge, it slipped back into space, flailing like an insect desperate to fly.

Tree and monsters alike fell to oblivion, leaving nothing but empty air in their wake.

Across the newly formed gap, the Megatank and two Kankrelat remained motionless, their eyes turned to the scene as if in shock.

Odd brushed himself off and stood, looking back across the void at them. He shrugged and gave an apologetic grin. "Don't worry, guys! I'm sure Aelita can make a land bridge to fix it!"

Without thinking, Odd turned his back on them, looking back the way he'd come—back to the tower. It was only when his form began to break apart a moment later that he realized the Megatank had hit him from behind.

----------------------------

"Nnnggh!" Odd gave a grunt as he fell out of the scanner, breathing heavily. He shook his head to clear it from the disorientation of being hit so many times in Lyoko and rematerializing. "Aww, dang it!" He swung a fist at the floor. He sighed and got to his feet, heading for the elevator.

----------------------------

Jeremie turned as the elevator opened and Odd entered the room.

The smaller boy crossed the floor space quickly, coming to stand beside Jeremie's shoulder and peer at the screen. "How are they doing?"

Jeremie shook his head. "Not good."

Even though Odd didn't completely understand all the data he was seeing on the screen, he did recognize the three symbols that represented Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita. And he could also see about thirty other symbols surrounding them. "What do you mean? I took out almost half of those monsters! How come there aren't less of them?"

"I don't know! Those Megatanks you got rid of were replaced, and the same with a bunch of the Kankrelat. There are almost as many monsters now as there were when we started. It's like you never even went into Lyoko in the first place!"

Odd's jaw dropped. "_What?_"

"I don't understand it!" Frustration was evident in Jeremie's voice. "Even when we materialized Aelita, Xana wasn't trying this hard!"

"They're never going to make it to the tower…" Odd's voice was strangely distant.

"What's the _point_ though?" Jeremie mused to himself, frustrated. "What is so important about that tower that Xana's got so many monsters defending it? And why isn't it affecting anything here in the real world?" For another long moment, he was silent. Then he pulled off the headset and held it out to Odd. "All right, this is what we'll do. You stay here, keep in contact with everyone and download a virtualization card for me. I'm going inside Lyoko to help."

Odd blinked at him. "You're going to go in and fight? But you've never done that before!"

Jeremie looked in no mood for an argument. "There's no way that Ulrich and Yumi can hold off that many monsters by themselves, and I can't waste time sitting here trying to figure out what Xana's true motives are. That tower is obviously important for some reason, and we have to get Aelita there safely." He pointed at the screen. "I've got my own basic card already, from when I went inside Xana's alternate reality before, so all it needs is to have some kind of weapon card downloaded."

Odd still hadn't taken the headset. "But Jeremie—"

"I can't sit here and do nothing, Odd. Even if I can't do much, I can at least help out a little." He looked back at the screen and the endless line of symbols that blemished it. "And with these odds, every little bit counts."

With a small sigh, Odd gave in. "All right, but be careful." He grasped the headset and settled it around his ear as Jeremie gave up his seat and headed for the elevator.

----------------------------


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes:** Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! I always appreciate feedback. Here's the newest chapter; it took a bit longer than I expected because I realized that it needed a tiny bit of reworking in this first section. Also, this was my favorite chapter to write. Oh, and one more thing. I've noticed that sometimes when I post, there are words that aren't spaced properly; two words will run into each other and stuff like that. It's not intentional, and when I type these chapters up, they're not like that. It's the posting process that does something weird to the format. So I apologize if any spacing is off.

**:Chapter Four:**

-------------------------

Jeremie felt a tingling, detached sensation that must have been so familiar to his friends, but was still strange to him. Then the inside of the scanner was gone, and replacing it was the beginning of a calm, forested landscape.

For a moment, his body remained suspended as it solidified. Then he was falling the short distance to the ground, landing hard. Raising his head, he found himself looking at a Kankrelat. It shifted slightly, regarding him with the telltale eye. Promptly deciding that he was an enemy, it fired.

"Gaah!" Jeremie rolled out of the way and took off at a run, hot streaks of fire at his heels. "Odd!" he shouted feverishly to the surroundings, "Give me something to fight back with!"

"_How do I do that?"_ Odd's voice sounded back at him.

Jeremie gave a moan, glancing back and forth for anywhere to hide. "Just download it into my sequence! Hurry up!"

"But I don't know—" 

"Drag and click with the mouse, you moron!" Jeremie made a dive behind a tree trunk, gasping on his hands and knees. He heard the clacking, whirring movement of the Kankrelat's appendages as it scuttled closer. "Now would be a good time, Odd!"

"Okay, but what do you—" 

"I don't care! Anything!"

"Fine! Here!" 

Something shimmered and began to materialize on Jeremie's wrist. Not waiting to recognize what it was, he whirled around the tree and into plain view of the attacking Kankrelat. Eyes focusing on the exposed symbol, Jeremie aimed a hand and felt the release as something fired towards the enemy.

The metal object caught sunlight as it flew, spinning as an indiscernible blur of motion that sailed past the Kankrelat, missing by several feet.

"Aw, dang it…" Jeremie flinched as he watched his shot bury itself uselessly in a nearby tree trunk. Then his expression suddenly changed to one of confusion. "Wait, what did I throw?" Glancing down at his hands, he saw that they were significantly larger than normal human hands, and covered with a fine layer of purple-hued fur. Small claws extended from the tips of what used to be fingers, and around the right wrist was a small firing mechanism, supplied with nine sharp metal arrows.

"What the—!" Jeremie twisted, scrutinizing the rest of his figure, his mouth dropping in shock as he caught sight of a long, supple tail that twitched from behind him. "Odd! What the heck did you download into me!"

Odd's voice filtered through Lyoko, sounding as though he were pouting. _"Hey, you're the one who said you didn't care what I gave you! Besides, it was the only thing I could think of!"_

"You gave me _your_ virtualized form!"

"_Well, Yumi and Ulrich are already using theirs, and I don't know how to make a new one, so I just tried mine."_ An air of smugness came through in his voice. _"Guess it worked, huh?"_

Jeremie rolled his eyes."It's a good thing that digital sequences and virtual forms are separate download programs, otherwise it wouldn't—"

"_Hey! Watch out!"_ Odd interrupted, shouting a warning.

The Kankrelat fired two quick laser blasts, and unlike it's inexperienced opponent, it didn't miss.

Jeremie felt a vague, detached sensation of pain and momentary immobility as the lasers slammed full into his chest, sending him flying backward to land flat on his back. Rather stunned, Jeremie lay there for a moment, feeling his body spark.

"_Jeremie, get up, quick!_" Odd's voice called to him. "_If you stay in one place, you'll just make it easier for the monsters to hit you!_"

"You could have mentioned that a little sooner!" Jeremie shot back, struggling to his feet as the Kankrelat continued to fire at him.

"_I thought that much would be obvious, genius."_

Jeremie didn't really pay attention to the quip; he was too busy trying to aim once again at the lone monster. He brought his wrist up, squinted one eye shut and sighted down his arm with the other.

But this time the Kankrelat beat him to the punch. The monster's laser slammed into his arm just as he fired, ruining his shot completely.

"_You can't take so long to aim," _Odd tried to sound helpful.

"I'm trying!" Jeremie argued, trying to shake his arm back into working order while dodging more shots. "This isn't exactly my forte, you know!" As soon as the sparking stopped, Jeremie fired two additional arrows wildly at his adversary.

Outside Lyoko, Odd winced in silence as he watched Jeremie's life points deplete and his supply of arrows go down steadily.

After his seventh consecutive miss, Jeremie dropped his arm and abandoned any thoughts of hitting the creature with Odd's arrows. Letting loose a shout of frustration, he charged straight at the Kankrelat. Hauling his foot back at the last second, he punted the monster as hard as he could.  
Kankrelats were apparently lighter than they seemed, because to his surprise, the monster flew a good distance through the air and right over the ground's nearby edge. An instant later it was out of sight, falling towards the void below.

"HA!" Jeremie exclaimed, grinning. "And they say I'm no good at football…"

"_You kicked it!"_ Odd's voice was incredulous. _"That's a bit unorthodox."_

"Well it worked a whole lot better than your stupid arrows."

"_Hey, it's not my fault if you can't hit the broad side of a barn."_

Jeremie shook his head and turned in the direction of the tower, beginning his sprint towards it. "We'll figure it out later…"

-------------------------

Aelita crouched behind an upturned root, safe for the moment. Both of Ulrich's copies had already been deleted, and the path to the tower was still completely blocked. She watched, worriedly, as Yumi and Ulrich struggled against the seemingly undiminished horde.

A distant shout caught her ears, and she turned in the direction that it had come from. She saw someone running rapidly in her direction, and squinted to discern the figure. "Odd?"

"_I'm here, on the headset," _Odd replied, hearing her query. _"What is it, Aelita?"_

The humanoid blinked, surprised. "But, if you're out there, then who…?" Her eyes widened as she realized who it was. "Jeremie!"

He heard the shout of recognition and picked up speed, coming straight towards her. As he passed a stand of trees, something moved behind them.

Aelita let out an involuntary gasp. "Jeremie! Look out!"

He stopped, staring at her quizzically.

Behind him, the Krabe moved out of its hiding place and gathered energy, preparing to launch its laser.

Quickly falling to her knees, Aelita held both hands out in front of her, palms forward, bowing her head and furrowing her eyes closed in concentration. Her lips parted involuntarily and a serene, ringing note issued forth, expanding and echoing, giving sound to the essence that was Lyoko itself.

Jeremie felt the ground shifting beneath him, ripples forming in the solid path and rushing under his feet like a stone ocean. He fell backwards, unable to keep his balance, and saw the streak of violent red as a laser passed through the place where he had been standing.

An instant later something else whirled through the air above him, white and spiraled. He heard the sting of metal against metal, and saw the shards of the destroyed monster as they scattered with the resulting explosion.

Jeremie looked up to see Aelita standing over him. He met her gaze, not sure whether to be grateful or upset. "You shouldn't have wasted your gaiakinesis on me!" he shook his head, "You might need it later!"

Aelita gave him a wry smile, unoffended. "If your welfare is concerned, it is not a waste." She helped him to his feet. "Besides, it's too late to worry about it now."

"Jeremie, what do you think you're doing?" The perturbed Yumi dashed up beside them, catching her fan on its return.

Back on his feet, Jeremie twitched his newly acquired tail. "I came to help."

"You're going to get yourself killed!" Yumi berated him like an angry mother.

Behind them, a Kankrelat scuttled sideways, unobserved, swiveling its head towards them for a clear shot.

Ulrich caught its movement out of the corner of his eye and turned. "All of you, watch it!" He shouted, lunging in front of them, sword extended.

The bright red orb burned as it prepared to release its laser—

—and stopped.

Ulrich stared at the Kankrelat as the glow from the laser receded and the monster went completely still. Uncertain, Ulrich cast about, only to see that every other monster that surrounded them had also ceased movement. They now stood like silent statues, frozen in attack positions, lasers dying as whatever power they possessed seemed to fail.

Yumi was uneasy. "Aelita? What's going on?"

The humanoid looked as confused as the rest of them. "I don't know, I've never seen Xana's monsters do anything like this…"

Jeremie took a cautious step forward and tapped the dome of a Kankrelat experimentally with his claws. It made a metallic sound, but the monster remained motionless. "It's like they've been deactivated or something," he mused.

"Well whatever's causing this, I say we take advantage of it," Ulrich gestured to Aelita. "Make a run for the tower while you've got the chance. We'll cover you in case they start moving again."

Aelita nodded and turned to follow his suggestion, but after only a few steps she came to a halt, staring straight ahead. The other three saw it, too—a humanoid figure striding towards them from the tower, making its way calmly through the line of silent monsters.

"Who is that?" Yumi hissed aloud, just so the others could hear.

Jeremie leaned towards Aelita. "I thought you were the only human inside Lyoko!"

She turned a disbelieving face to him. "I _am_…"

He appeared to be about their age, and was no taller than Ulrich. The tips of pointed ears were visible from beneath locks of dark green hair, alive with blackened highlights. His pale face held glinting green eyes, and above them, in the center of his forehead, was the symbol of a third eye…

"Well, my troublesome humans," the boy halted before them, a plastered smile of insincerity lurking on his features. "_Enchanté!_ It's so nice to finally meet you all in person…"

Four pairs of eyes widened in unison.

"Xana!" Jeremie gasped, voicing aloud what everyone realized.

The boy's smile widened and he spread his arms wide. "In the flesh." Then he stepped forward, offering a handshake in Jeremie's direction.

Jeremie looked blankly at the extended hand for a moment, before turning a stare of disbelief to the humanoid. "You're kidding, right?"

Xana rolled his eyes and withdrew his arm. "I expected as much. Ah well, it was worth a try…"

Ulrich was glaring suspiciously at the newfound humanoid. "I don't know what you're up to, Xana," he spoke darkly, katana raised. "But we're going to stop you."

"Bold words coming from such a weak species," the humanoid replied, not looking worried in the least as he gestured at the still monsters that surrounded them. "So far it would seem that your efforts have been proving less than sufficient."

Yumi pushed close to the dark haired humanoid in a menacing manner. "Whatever you're trying to accomplish with this little charade, it's not going to—nnngggh!"

Her sentence was cut off with a grunt of pain as Xana moved with frightening speed, grasping one of her wrists and twisting it viciously behind her back. "Accomplish?" he spoke into her ear as he held her in the twisted, locked position. "Well, what I accomplish today will depend on how the testing goes…"

He released her roughly, shoving her to the ground at Jeremie's feet. She crouched for a moment, glaring daggers at Xana and rubbing at her wrist. No one seemed to notice the strange, dark bruise that circled her skin where Xana had touched her, or how it faded unnaturally in the next few moments.

Jeremie crouched down beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

Yumi shook him off, rising back to her feet, her eyes still locked in a death glare on Xana. "I'm fine…"

Xana was grinning at them, eyeing Jeremie's hand on Yumi's shoulder as though truly pleased with something. "Getting affectionate?"

As though he'd been burned, Jeremie practically yanked his hand away from Yumi's shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ulrich didn't seem to want to wait for a response. "Shut up, Xana," he glared and moved closer to Yumi.

The dark haired humanoid laughed. "Somebody's jealous…"

"I said shut up!" Ulrich brandished his sword, looking ready to charge across the short distance and skewer the taunting youth.

Xana held up a hand as if to keep him at bay. "Don't rush into combat with me just yet," he chided, now turning his gaze to Aelita. "There are a few things we need to discuss, first."

Aelita eyed him warily.

"Yes, you know it," he smiled smugly, gesturing at his appearance. "We're of the same species, Aelita. You could even think of me as a brother."

She stared.

"Don't tell me you can't see the resemblance," he answered her silence mockingly. "This is what I once was, just as you are now, Aelita—a digital being with a humanoid form. But I have evolved beyond that immature stage and into something much more powerful, more efficient. Long since have I given up this crude manifestation and its inability to exist in any dimension but its own. Although," Xana sent a sly glance towards Jeremie, "Certain efforts to provide such a permanent manifestation in your dimension have been nearly successful, quite to my surprise, I might add. And now that my regression is complete, I'm sure they will prove most useful…"

Aelita's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

Xana acted as if he hadn't heard her question. "I thought the same thing as you did once. That I had a rightful place among the other inhabitants of existence; that I should be a part of the life that went on outside this empty, virtual place; that I needed to conform to a lower standard of existence to be accepted…" He smiled with sickening insincerity. "So you see, I understand why you insist on clinging to this crude, mortal form, whether it be for familiarity, or perhaps sentimental value…" Xana slid his eyes to gaze in Jeremie's direction.

Her own temper riled, Aelita glared back. "Do you think telling me this is going to change anything?"

Xana shook his head as though he were disappointed. "Don't interrupt the lecture, Aelita. Didn't I tell you, I shared the same way of thinking?" He grinned wickedly "That is, until I realized something."

Silently infuriated, Aelita took a step back.

"I am superior." Xana's eyes seemed to flare, and he reached out a hand to grip her forearm. "_We_ are superior, Aelita. These fragile creatures that call themselves an intelligent human race are nothing but weak masses of flesh that seek to bring meaning to their pointless lives! In every aspect of their existence they rely on technology, machinery, and the exploitation of other living beings to continue their pathetic, parasitic existence. They claim to have evolved and progressed as living entities, but all they have succeeded in doing is aid in the destruction and infestation of an entire planet. There is no logic to why they should continue to survive! There is no purpose to their existence! They do not deserve to dominate this, or any other planet!"

Aelita's eyes were firm and angry as she drew her head up to meet his gaze. "You are wrong."

A smirk slowly made its way across Xana's mouth, and his grip seemed to tighten. "Tell me something, Aelita. If Lyoko somehow became infected with a virus that could not be contained and was slowly deteriorating our world, wouldn't you exterminate it? Fight against it with all your ability and delete it with no hesitations?"

Aelita was silent. The firm gaze that she had held a moment ago was now betrayed by uncertainty.

Xana grinned. "You know the answer to that, don't you?"

Suddenly something changed in Aelita's eyes. She glared a Xana…and smiled. "Yes. You are right. If Lyoko were to become infected with such a virus, I would delete it with no regrets."

Xana's eyebrow shot up at her sudden agreement.

Aelita's smile grew wider. "And that is why I have been fighting all along to delete _you_, Xana…"

The mark on Xana's forehead suddenly pulsed with a fury of light. "Insolent _human!_" His figure heaved with anger, beginning to glow as it was surrounded by a dark aura. "Join them in their extinction, then!"

"Leave her alone!" Jeremie shouted.

Ulrich had also had enough. "All right, that's it!" He took a menacing step forward.

Xana turned his head in Ulrich's direction, releasing Aelita's arm as the angry aura dissipated from around his body. Aelita rubbed the spot where he had been clutching her, a thick bruise slowly fading.

"Are you so eager to die?" The familiar smirk twisted across Xana's features as he spread his hands wide in a defenseless, welcoming gesture, his voice holding a sarcastic tone. "Come fight me then."

With a snarl, Ulrich charged the few yards between them, sword whistling through the air as he slashed at his enemy.

Xana's hand shot out, clamping around the boy's neck. From beneath his fingertips, a black essence emerged, seeping with miniscule tendrils through the contact with Ulrich's digital form. Suddenly Xana released him and Ulrich stumbled back, gasping at the release of pressure. A dark, unnatural bruise in the shape of Xana's hand remained on the skin around his throat for a moment, before slowly fading.

"What the hell—?" Ulrich massaged his neck, eying Xana warily.

The humanoid's figure suddenly blurred, streaking across the short distance at inhuman speed and coming back into normal focus at Ulrich's side. Grinning in the samurai's face, Xana delivered a heavy blow to his midriff before Ulrich had time to realize he was there.

Ulrich doubled over, his mouth wide and silent with a gasp that never existed. The sword dropped from his grasp, clattering on the hard ground.

With no hesitation, Xana snatched the weapon up from where it had fallen, whirled the bright blade easily in his grasp, and stabbed deep into Ulrich's torso.

Somehow, the feeling that shot through Ulrich's body at that moment wasn't the familiar, detached flickering that came with a hit to his digital form. It was far more…_real_. The cold metal pressed into his ribs, the sensation burning and chilling at the same time as it sliced through his figure. He could _feel_ it inside of him, sliding through flesh and against bone, making him suddenly gasp for air that wouldn't come. He lifted his head, eyes unfocused with disbelief, gazing at Xana's smirking, victorious visage as though it were from a great distance away.

Xana still held the hilt of the sword in his fist. With a wry smile, the humanoid twisted the blade viciously, then ripped it out.

Ulrich couldn't stop the scream from issuing from his throat.

As the metal was yanked from the wound, pain seared through his body to take its place. For a moment blackness obscured his vision and he could hear his own voice echoing in a drawn, agonized cry. Then reality and consciousness rushed back to his senses, and he was on his hands and knees, gasping. From within the pain, another sensation registered, warm and thick, dripping and spreading like liquid down his side…

Someone else was shouting, crying his name over and over. He saw a shadow on the ground next to his own, sensed someone's presence, felt a hand as it pressed hard against his side.

"Oh my god, he's bleeding! Jeremie! Help me! He's _bleeding!_"

Another cry of pain escaped his lips as the pressure created a fresh wave of agony. Then he could feel his figure breaking apart, the familiar de-virtualization that happened every time he lost too many life points and was forced to return to human form…

"Oh, god, Ulrich! _Ulrich!_" Yumi clawed at the air as his figure began to disappear, as though she could somehow keep it in her grasp. "No!" She looked down at her empty hands as he faded completely, seeing only the thick, scarlet stains left from where she'd tried to stop the bleeding, reflecting the horror and guilt that suddenly plagued her. "How can he bleed? _How could he bleed?_" Yumi slammed crimson-tainted hands desperately at the ground, as though it would somehow bring him back. Suddenly she snapped her head upwards, shouting at the sky. "Odd! Odd, where is he? _Where is he?_"

-------------------------

Odd heard the screaming issue through the speaker, heard the hissing sound and vibrations from the floor below as a scanner activated the re-materialization sequence automatically. He scrambled to get up out of the chair, nearly tripping himself in his haste and stumbling half of the distance to the elevator.

The instant the elevator doors opened, Odd was dashing towards the humming scanner, only half-hearing Yumi's cry as it echoed from the headset, sounding small and tinny, unworthy of the desperation that laced through her voice. "Odd! Odd, where is he? _Where is he?_"

The scanner doors began to slide open, painstakingly slowly. Odd flung an arm through the small opening, pushing the doors as hard as he could in a futile attempt to make them open faster. "He's here!" Odd shouted back as he heaved. "He's coming back to human form!"

Before the scanner doors had finished opening fully, Odd could already register the rematerialized form inside. His eyes widened and his breath came with a sharp intake. "My god…"

-------------------------

Hearing Odd's statement gave Yumi no comfort.

She turned, eyes searching wildly for something to focus on, coming to rest on Jeremie. "What's going on Jeremie?" her own voice threatened to break as despair replaced the thread of desperation. "What happened to him?"

The answer came, but not from the smaller blonde boy she had addressed. Instead, a slithering reply issued from a widely grinning, sword-wielding humanoid. "Biological Merger," Xana stated proudly. He gave Ulrich's blade a swift twirl in the air, his green eyes following the reflection of light and spray of blood that played off the sword with a mild interest. "Why don't you explain it to her, Jeremie? I'm sure you've figured it out by now."

Jeremie grit his teeth, glaring a seething anger at their enemy. "You bastard…"

"Jeremie!" Yumi was looking up at him from where she knelt on the ground, pleading, too concerned to be distracted by Xana's taunting. "Tell me what happened to Ulrich! Why was he bleeding!"

Xana laughed. He dug the dripping, crimson tip of the katana into the ground and leaned his weight against the hilt, watching his three enemies with relaxed, amused interest. "Go on, genius, don't keep her waiting!"

"A biological merger…" Jeremie fought to withhold the urge to charge across the ground right then and there and attempt to rip Xana limb from limb. Instead, he forced his gaze to focus on Yumi as he tried grimly to explain. "Somehow, he must have found a way to establish the link between our physical bodies in the real world and our virtualizations here. He made us just as human and physically vulnerable here as we are on the outside."

"Then…the blood…" Yumi looked down at her coated hands in horror.

"…was quite real," Xana finished for her, a satisfied tone in his voice. "And the damage he sustained remained just as real when he returned to your plane of existence."

-------------------------

Odd was on hands and knees, half inside the scanner as he knelt over Ulrich. The dark-haired boy was slumped against the inside wall, head back, mouth wide as he struggled to breath normally. The entire left side of his body was now steeped in his own blood, and the same liquid was now dripping down the wall where Ulrich was leaning against it.

Adrenaline and fear pumping through his system, Odd didn't even register the fact that he felt nauseated. Without hesitation, he pulled his shirt off and folded it quickly into a long strip of cloth, then pressed it firmly against the open wound. Ignoring Ulrich's involuntary cry of pain, he only grasped it harder, desperate to staunch the endless flow of crimson. Odd grit his teeth, heedless of the stain as it seeped over his hands.

Ulrich tilted his head, trying to focus pain-glazed eyes on his friend.

Lifting one hand off the makeshift compress, Odd grasped Ulrich's left wrist and pulled his hand onto the cloth. "Listen Ulrich, you can't sit here in the scanner. I need you to hold this on your side and try to walk with me, okay?"

Ulrich made no response.

Odd shook his shoulder, and pressed his hand a little harder against the cloth. "Ulrich! I need to get you over to where you can lie down, now come on!"

A painful hiss escaped Ulrich's lips as he gritted his teeth and tried to focus, taking hold of the cloth against his side. "…I g-got it…"

"That's it," Odd encouraged. He slid both hands under Ulrich's arms and pulled. Slowly, half dragging, the two boys managed to move from the scanner to half way across the room to where the wall slanted. A painted, scarlet trail marked their progress behind them.

Leaning Ulrich down into a semi-lying position against the wall, Odd knelt beside him, trying to staunch the blood flow. "Come on, buddy, stay with me…"

-------------------------


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes:** Hooray, another chapter posted! Now we finally get to see what's really going on. Thank you, as always, to those who have given me such great reviews! Oh, and I just realized that I forgot to answer a person's question in my last post, so I'm doing that now. Question: What's a _nekko_? Answer: _Nekko_ is the Japanese word for cat. In Japanese anime there are many instances of characters who are half human and half cat. Any character of this kind is commonly referred to as a nekko. Since Code Lyoko is influenced so heavily by Japanese anime (as seen in the style of animation and the Lyoko forms of the characters) I decided to use _nekko_ to describe Odd's virtual form. Ulrich becomes a Japanese samurai, Yumi becomes a Japanese geisha, and Odd becomes a Japanese nekko character. And there you have it.

Wow that was long. Sorry!

**:Chapter Five:**

----------------------------

Xana looked expectantly at the angry faces that were glaring in his direction. "What's the matter?" he asked innocently, "Don't you like me anymore?"

Jeremie ignored his taunt, his words bitter and forced. "There's more to this stunt of yours than making us human, isn't there, Xana?"

The humanoid grinned. "Are you asking because you really don't know?" Xana leaned in close to the smaller boy. "That must be driving you mad right now, Jeremie. You, of all people, unable to determine the true extent of the events that are transpiring…"

Jeremie said nothing, his eyes seething hatred.

Xana gave a short laugh. "Oh, this will make it most amusing…" He took a stance, arms locked behind his back and looking prepared to give a lecture. He cast about for a moment, his gaze coming to rest on nearby Kankrelat. Crossing the few yards between them, Xana came to halt in front of its motionless form, as it remained in standby mode. Stretching out his fingers, he brushed them lightly across the surface of the Kankrelat's head dome. The dark essence drifted over the smaller monster for a moment before sinking through its form and dissolving away into a bruise. The creature shuddered once.

With an air of indifference, Xana unexpectedly grasped one of the long, spindly spikes of metal that made up the creature's legs, and ripped it off. Turning it neatly in his hand, he stabbed downward with the sharp edge into the center of the eye, before the Kankrelat could even tip over from the sudden loss of a limb.

Instead of the monster cascading into pieces and dissolving into deletion, a thick, sickening whitish fluid spewed forth from the 'wound', bubbling out and flowing thickly like blood. Xana withdrew the metal appendage, and the monster clattered to the ground, its remaining legs twitching and the fluid dripping as though it were a living thing that was dying…

Without missing a beat, Xana twisted his torso, flinging the pointed object deep into the head dome of another Kankrelat a few yards away. The instant the metal had embedded in its body, the creature sparked, pulsed with Xana's infection of dark matter, and fountained a fresh stream of the now-familiar fluid. White dripping down its eye, the Kankrelat careened sideways on scuttling legs that seemed suddenly unable to keep its balance. It, too, crashed to the ground, splashing the stark surroundings with a spray of its blood and convulsing in a strange, real death.

Jeremie watched the display wide-eyed, muttering his realizations aloud. "It's another virus…he made himself a carrier, and even something inanimate has the potential to be infected…even a virtual creature that exists here, in Lyoko!" He whirled, facing Aelita with fear evident on his features. "Aelita! You're in danger, too! Don't come near any of us!"

Her gaze shifted rapidly back and forth between Xana and Jeremie. "But, if Xana is the one who carries the virus—"

"Didn't you see when he threw the metal?" Jeremie interrupted desperately. "Once something is infected, it becomes a carrier, too! Xana infected Ulrich and Yumi when he touched them, and I must have got it when I came into contact with Yumi. Don't touch anything, Aelita, or else you—"

"Oh, please," Now it was Xana's turn to interrupt, impatience mixed with the sarcasm. "Aelita was infected before Ulrich was."

Aelita's hand rose absently to brush against the place on her arm where Xana had gripped her before.

The dark haired humanoid nodded at her and smiled viciously.

"That's why he tried to shake hands first!" Jeremie's face twisted in disgust. "To spread the infection through the necessary physical contact."

In an ironic display of mock approval, Xana clapped, the sound echoing strangely in the atmosphere. "So clever, Jeremie, as always." He let his hands fall back to his sides, grinning at the three children. "And I'm sure you'll be well pleased to know there's even more to this infection than the biological merger that affects you here."

Uncertainly crossed Aelita's face. "What do you mean?"

Raising a hand, palm outward, Xana released a wisp of black fog from his fingertips, the technique he had used to infect each of them with a mere touch. "When I manifest this virus in your reality, it will create a reverse effect, infusing any human with my own virtual data, giving me complete control over their functions within a matter of hours."

Aelita stared in disbelief. "But the humans—"

"—only possess biological immune systems. They have no defense against a materialized, virtual infection." Xana interrupted.

"But…you can't…" Aelita's voice trailed off.

"Oh, yes, I can." Xana flashed a smile and lowered his hand, watching the dark smoke dissolve into the air. "It will work just as easily, the same way it did here…"

Jeremie caught his meaning. "You're bluffing," he said. "You said yourself, Xana, you've regressed your physical form to Aelita's level of existentiality. You have to remain inside Lyoko just like she does."

The dark haired humanoid rolled his eyes. "Didn't you understand my earlier implications? The materialization sequence that you've been working for so long, perfecting to merge with the specifications of a virtual humanoid like Aelita…"

If it was possible for Jeremie's features to darken further, they did. "Don't you _dare!_"

Xana seemed unperturbed by the display of violent emotion as he nodded in Aelita's direction, "Well it's not like she'll be needing it anymore. The biological merger that she's infected with functions as a near-identical substitute. Which reminds me…" he faced Aelita, smirking. "Since your body thinks it's human now, Aelita, it should only be a few hours before the other virus begins to take effect as well…"

Jeremie's expression turned to one of angered confusion. "What do you mean, the other virus will take effect? That virus only activates inside Aelita when we shut you down!"

Xana rolled his eyes. "Do you think that if I had the chance to infect her, I would use a virus that carried out only one function?" He narrowed his gaze at Jeremie. "Yes, it connects her life to my own. But the virus's activation is not linked solely to my extermination. It will also kill her if she materializes in your world as a human and remains there for too long."

"_What?_" Jeremie shouted.

Aelita looked as though she didn't want to ask the next question. "How long is too long?"

Xana smirked. "About an hour."

Jeremie's eyes widened. "No!"

"Enjoy your time together!" Xana smiled at Jeremie and Aelita. "After all, since she's human now she's only got an hour left. I'll leave you two alone. It's about time to test my new infection in your reality, anyway." Xana cast them all a sarcastic motherly look, rolling his voice into a mockery of comforting words. "And don't worry! I'll visit your samurai friend for you…"

For a long time, Yumi had remained silent on her knees, gazing down forlornly at her empty, crimson hands. Now her mouth moved in a harsh whisper. "…I'll kill you…" Slowly she raised her head, pure rage reflected in her features as she glared death at Xana. With a haunted cry, she was suddenly on her feet, her fan open in her grasp, screaming as she thundered towards him. "_I'LL KILL YOU!_" Her vicious ferocity caught Xana off guard. She flung herself at him, slashing with her weapon in a blur of motion that drove him back.

For the first time since he had approached them, Xana seemed to lose focus of his confidence. As he stumbled backwards under Yumi's attacks, he was forced to defend himself desperately, blocking and parrying wildly with Ulrich's katana. The clatter of Yumi's razor-sharp fan against the metal of the sword echoed unnaturally in the surroundings.

Then there was a slick, wisping sound of impact and a thin cut sprang into existence on the side of the humanoid's face, bringing forth a bright line of blood.

Xana frowned, narrowing his eyes at the girl as he raised a hand to feel the small wound.

Panting, Yumi faced him, a dangerous look on her face. Pale light slowly began to gather around her figure as she summoned telekinesis and readied another attack.

The dark-haired humanoid glared back at her, all the taunting mannerisms gone. "Enough," he said simply. Twisting Ulrich's katana in his hands, he flung it forcefully at Yumi's figure.

Aelita gasped and dashed forward. "Yumi! Look out!" She tackled the dark-haired girl, pushing her out of harm's way and ruining her concentration, causing the psychic energy to dispel. The sword embedded itself in the ground, quivering for a moment.

Xana's expression remained serious as he glared at them. "Enough," he repeated, growling. With a wide swing of his arm, he gestured to the remaining drones as they suddenly began to shift and clatter back to life. "Continue your games with my monsters. I have other matters to attend."

His form began to flicker out of existence, dissolving to a simple grid, and then into nothing.

----------------------------

The empty scanner began to hum. Startled, Odd twisted his head, eyes narrowing in confusion. Ulrich heard it too, and struggled to gain a sitting position. "…Yumi…?"

Odd pushed him back down. "Don't move around, Ulrich! You'll make the bleeding even worse!" Turning back to watch as the scanner began an automatic materialization sequence, he blinked slowly. "It's not Yumi who's coming through…or Jeremie either…"

Slowly the scanner doors began to slide open, and through them the boys could see a tall, thin figure with blazing green eyes, dark hair, and the unnatural mark of a third eye on his forehead.

"Xana!" Odd's eyes widened in disbelief.

The newly materialized humanoid stepped through, head swiveling as he surveyed his surroundings. The spread of blood on the scanner and the floor caught his eye, and his face split into a wide grin. "I see the biological merger worked perfectly." Turning his gaze to the remaining, occupied scanners, he took a step toward Yumi's. "Now we need only test the virtual expansion…"

Raising a hand, he placed it lightly against the closed metal doors, behind which Yumi's figure rested as her essence moved inside Lyoko. Xana pulsed black, seeping tendrils of the familiar, smoke-like substance through his fingertips, watching with satisfaction as the dark matter infected the metal, spreading and fading through it like liquid.

Without warning a piece of metal flew into the scanner with a hard clattering sound, simultaneously striking metal and flesh. Xana snatched his hand back like it had been burned, hissing at the sensation of pain. He swiveled his head, searching for the source of the projectile.

"Back off, creep!" Odd snatched up another piece of shrapnel and flung it as hard as he could at Xana's head.

Xana dodged, teeth gritting as he frowned and muttered to himself, "I forgot about you…"

Ulrich struggled to his knees, seemingly desperate. "What are you doing to Yumi?"

The humanoid glanced in his direction, and his taunting manner suddenly resumed. "Testing my virus, of course." He patted the scanner as though it were an obedient pet.

"Leave her alone!" Odd grit his teeth and hurled a length of metal. It whistled through the air, spinning like a propeller as it flew towards the humanoid.

Xana stood motionless until the last possible second, then twisted minutely on one heel, raising a hand with a swift, deliberate movement. There was a fleshy sound of impact, and Xana stood grinning with the length of metal resting comfortably in his palm. "Too late now, I'm afraid." He waved it generously. "It almost makes me feel sorry for you, Odd. You do try so hard." He gestured widely at Ulrich's wounded form. "But believe me, _he_ is more of a threat to me now than you'll ever be."

Furious, Ulrich was struggling to rise, and somehow managed to brace himself in a semi-upright position, while still leaning heavily against the wall with an outstretched arm. "…damn right I'm a threat…come over here and I'll show you, coward!"

Xana burst out laughing, a hideously unnatural sound. "I swear, you humans will never cease to amuse me!" He waved a hand in dismissal. "The wounded and the weakling, both deluded into believing that they can stop me…"

Something in Odd's face twinged confusion. "What you mean, 'weakling'?"

For a moment, Xana merely stood there, turning a vicious grin on the spiky haired youth. Then there was a blurring motion, and before Odd could blink, the dark haired humanoid was suddenly right in front of him.

Xana thrust a hand at Odd's throat and gripped tightly, a technique that he seemed to favor. Holding the smaller boy at arms length, Xana taunted, "You know it as well as I do, and all your friends know it, too, in fact. They're just too worried about hurting your feelings to tell you outright." Now Xana smiled with mock pleasantry. "Fortunately, I am under no such emotional restraint."

Odd grit his teeth, clutching at the hand around his throat, trying to pull back.

"You're the weak link in the chain! The unreliable one who tosses caution to the wind and plays the game as though it were exactly that—a meaningless game." The taunting smile suddenly vanished as Xana pressed his face closer, glaring with dark eyes. "And because of that I've been wanting to tell you something for a long time, Odd…"

Xana's gaze burned hatred, and the symbol of the third eye seemed to flare with a light of it's own.

"_I am no game…_"

----------------------------

The mechanized monsters inside Lyoko gave forth clattering and whirring sounds as their reactivation sequences were initiated. Spidery metal legs began to twitch and move, while familiar eyes lit from within, glowing back to existence.

"Damn it," Jeremie swore under his breath and turned to the girls. "We have to hide, quick. It'll buy us some time."

Aelita nodded feverishly and gestured at a cluster of wide trees. "Over there," she said quickly as she turned and started to run. Yumi and Jeremie followed at her heels. The three companions ducked quickly behind the nearest trunk, catching their breaths as they fell into the shaded area.

Jeremie peered around the edge of the tree trunk, catching a quick glance of their surroundings before ducking his head back into the safety of shadow. He spoke in a hushed tone to his companions, "They've all reactivated, and they're everywhere. I don't think they know where we are yet, but it looks like they're searching."

Aelita shook her head. "With so many, one of them is bound to stumble across us."

"Yeah," he agreed grimly, "It's not long until our cover is blown."

Yumi sat slightly apart, heedless of her companion's conversation, muttering heatedly to herself. "I hate him…I'll _kill_ him…I'll kill him for what he did…"

Jeremie punched a fist against the unyielding wood surface with frustration. "Nnnggh! Xana is in our world, spreading his control, while we sit here helpless! If I were out there now, I could have stopped him from materializing!" As his own statement sounded in his ears, he realized something. "That's why," Jeremie turned disbelieving eyes towards Aelita. "That's why Xana did all this! That stupid cat and Sissi's email were just ruses to attract our attention, to get us to look for the activated tower. But it never had anything to do with the tower! His real goal was to trap us here and then materialize himself in the real world so he could spread his virus. That's why he didn't reveal himself until I virtualized inside Lyoko…he wanted me _here_, so that I wouldn't be able to stop him…"

Aelita looked forlorn as she caught onto his meaning. "Then he sent all those drones after Odd on purpose—"

"—so that Odd would be forced out of Lyoko and I would take his place! _Damn!_" Jeremie tried to vent, grasping his forehead with one hand. "He set us up, and we fell for it! I _have_ to rematerialize and stop him!"

"But you can't," Aelita said mournfully. "If you start to battle and lose life points here, you'll never make it out of Lyoko alive…"

For a long moment Jeremie was silent. Then something struck him. "No…I know how we can get out…" a strange glint of desperation and recklessness lit his eyes. He whirled on his dark-haired companion. "Yumi! Hit me."

For a moment she didn't respond, still lost within her own thoughts. Then she blinked back to reality, staring up at him. "What?"

"Hit me! Slice me with your fan or something! If I lose my life points, I'll rematerialize."

Aelita gave a little gasp. "But Jeremie—"

"Are you mad?" Yumi cut her off, suddenly furious as she clenched hands into fists and grit her teeth hard. "We're physically vulnerable now! Didn't you see what Xana did…what he did…t-to Ulrich?" Her voice quavered and began to break at the end of the sentence as she struggled to control her emotion.

"And you cut him," Jeremie argued. "Xana bled just as easily as Ulrich did, and that means he'll be physically vulnerable to any attack, especially if he manifests in true human form. If I rematerialize, I can find him and stop him…"

"Stop him how, Jeremie?" Yumi was angry now. "You said it yourself, he's going to make himself human. Pushing a delete key isn't going to work!"

"We have to do something, Yumi!" he answered desperately. "If you hit me just enough so it won't cause permanent damage, I can probably materialize back in our world safely. And I'd rather do that than go up against Xana's monsters, which I _know_ are going to try and kill me!"

The dark haired girl shifted uncomfortably, sending a quick glance towards Aelita. "And what about Aelita? We're not going to really be able to fix any of this if we can't get her to the tower to reverse time, and there's no way I can help her on my own."

Jeremie grimaced at that. "I know," he sighed heavily. "But we have no idea what the effects will be in our world now that Xana's actually materialized himself in human form. The results of his virtual infection might be irreversible…like someone dying…" He glanced from Aelita to Yumi. "I _have _to go after him, Yumi! And you know I'm not much help to you here anyway."

For a moment, Yumi looked on in silence. Then she nodded and extended her fan, opening the keen edge. "All right. Hold still…"

She twisted her wrist, turning the fan in a cutting motion and catching the skin on Jeremie's forearm. Jeremie hissed, gripping his elbow as a thin line of crimson sprang into existence along with a slick burning sensation. After a moment the initial pain subsided to a weak throb, and he glanced up at his companions.

Aelita was glancing nervously at the wound. "You must still have life points left…"

"Yeah," Jeremie agreed, keeping his gaze on Yumi. "Better do it again so—"

"Nnnngggghhhh!" Yumi suddenly fell to one knee, clutching at her head.

Aelita was immediately at her side, leaning over her. "Yumi! Yumi, what's wrong?"

Yumi gave the humanoid a sudden, hard shove, almost whimpering as she did so. "…get away from me…run…there's something else…"

Jeremie took a step forward. "Yumi—"

Her head snapped up and she glared at him, the shadow of a familiar symbol on her forehead threatening to pulse into existence. "I said _go!_" she screamed, scrambling to her feet and giving Aelita another push. "It's not safe to be around me anymore! Run!"

For a moment, Aelita looked as though she wanted to cry. Then she turned away, whirling as she ran swiftly towards the tower. Alone.

Jeremie remained, staring at the dark haired girl, realizing what must be happening. "Xana…he got to your scanner on the outside…" He stepped forward again, holding out a hand. "Fight it, Yumi! You don't have to give into his control—"

She shrieked, cutting him off, twisting a wrist as she threw her weapon. "_Get away!_"

Jeremie felt a swift, cold current of air as the whirling fan whistled past the side of his face. Another slick, burning sensation ripped through his shoulder, and then the world of Lyoko was fading from sight. He felt the pain, a slow, warm run of blood, and realized that didn't know whether he was returning to reality or falling into unconsciousness…

----------------------------


	6. Chapter 6

** Author's Notes:** All right peoples, another chapter posted. This was the most stubborn chapter ever…friggin' fight scene writing…grrrr… Anyways, a huge thank you as always to all my reviewers, you have no idea how much your feedback is appreciated. Everyone has been so positive and encouraging, it really means a lot.  
Heh heh, a few people didn't like Xana stomping on Odd's self-esteem, eh? Well, there's good reason for it, you'll see…

**: Chapter Six :**

-------------------------

A scanner activated, breaking the heavy atmosphere with its familiar humming. Surprised, Xana turned to regard it, blinking at the light that began to glow from within, showing faintly through the cracks in the doors.

"Jeremie…" Ulrich breathed as he realized which scanner it was.

Xana gave Odd a grin. "Well, it looks like you'll have another friend to take care of." The humanoid suddenly released his grip around Odd's throat, causing Odd to fall to his knees gasping for air. "I was going to just kill you outright," Xana murmured thoughtfully, "But now that I think about it, it will be much more satisfying to let you watch your friends die first."

Odd raised his eyes helplessly to the scanner. "No…"

"If he's sustained enough damage to rematerialize, he'll be either dead or dying." Xana's voice was light and free of concern. "Better get over there to help him out in case he's still alive!" He smiled, glancing back and forth between Odd and Ulrich. "Well, have fun while I'm gone. I'll be back later to dispose of you permanently."

He shifted, and so did his form. He became more transparent, and less visible, the edges of his figure almost blurring into the familiar dark smoke that he was truly made of. In the next moment, he slid through the solid wall as silent as a ghost, and disappeared.

-------------------------

There was a light around him, and a door slid open. Jeremie fell out of the scanner, landing on hands and knees, breathing hard. He lifted a hand to his shoulder, where Yumi's fan had sliced him and the burning sensation remained. His fingertips came away, lightly tinged with red. He twisted his neck, turning his eyes to see a thin line of crimson that marked the wound. It matched the shallow, crescent shaped one on his forearm, and he knew it wouldn't bleed for more than a few minutes.

Pulling himself to his feet, Jeremie caught sight of Yumi's scanner, just across from his own. The metal swirled with a dark infection, the infuriatingly familiar symbol of Xana pulsing in the center. Jeremie grit his teeth in frustration.

He stood, casting about the rest of the room. Ulrich and Odd were present, Ulrich leaning against one wall, half in a kneeling position while Odd stood nearby.

"Where is he?" Jeremie demanded. "Where's Xana?"

Both boys were staring at him wide-eyed. Odd took a step forward, almost as though he were uncertain. "Jeremie? You're…you're all right!"

"Where's Xana?" Jeremie repeated, ignoring Odd's comment.

"But…how did you get out of Lyoko without getting hurt?" Ulrich asked.

"I didn't." Jeremie looked bitter and uninterested at the same time.

Odd moved towards him. "Your shoulder!" he exclaimed, catching sight of the blood. "Is it bleeding badly?"

"It doesn't matter!" Jeremie snapped. "_Where is_ _Xana?"_ For some reason, his expression darkened and he focused on Odd. "Did you let him get away?"

"I didn't _let_ him get away!" Odd answered defensively.

Ulrich narrowed his gaze, surprised at Jeremie's anger. "Jeremie, you don't need to get so upset."

Ignoring his question, Jeremie met his gaze, a strange distance in his eyes. "What about you? Are you okay?"

Ulrich scrutinized his friend for a moment, then nodded slowly.

Odd tried to give a half smile. "Yeah, and he was threatening Xana just a minute ago, so I think he's fine."

Ulrich smirked.

Turning away, Jeremie gave a curt nod and began heading for the elevator.

Odd raised an eyebrow and called after him, "Hey, where are you going?"

Without turning, Jeremie answered darkly, "I'm going after Xana."

"All right," Odd moved after him swiftly. "I'm coming—"

"No," Jeremie interrupted, not even glancing back. "Stay with Ulrich, and keep an eye on Aelita and Yumi."

Odd halted, a confused look on his face. "But I can help—"

"No, you can't!" Jeremie's words echoed harshly in the empty surroundings as he whirled to face Odd. "You can't even handle yourself!"

Odd blinked at him, shocked.

"If you knew how to take anything seriously, we wouldn't even be in this mess!" Jeremie fumed. "Xana _wanted_ me to be inside Lyoko before he revealed himself, so that I wouldn't be able to stop him from materializing here! He was just toying with you when he sent all those drones, and if you hadn't been messing around and sacrificed all your life points like it was some kind of stupid game, I wouldn't have had to go in for you!"

Odd looked as though he didn't know whether to feel hurt or angry, but the words that came next were hard and bitter. "So you think if it had been Yumi or Ulrich who had lost all their life points first, you wouldn't have done the same thing? If it had been either of them, you wouldn't have taken their place?"

"It _never_ would have been one of them, Odd! Xana targeted you first because he knew that you'd be the easiest to get rid of inside Lyoko, and that even if you were outside in the real world, you _still _wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him. And you know what? He was right."

Odd was silent.

The light caught Jeremie's glasses as he began to turn away again, obscuring his eyes. "Just like you never take _him_ seriously, Xana doesn't take _you_ seriously. And neither do I."

For a moment the only sound was Jeremie's heavy footsteps as he strode towards the elevator. The doors pulled open, yawning for him to enter.

Then, as the elevator began to slide closed, Odd's voice sounded just above the low hum. He sounded hurt, his words almost a hoarse whisper as his throat tightened. "Yeah…Xana told me that, too…"

Jeremie didn't look back.

-------------------------

Yumi could feel it pushing at her consciousness, at her sanity, and it burned and crawled beneath her skin with ever-growing intensity.

She knew Jeremie was gone, and Aelita was fleeing towards the tower. It knew this as well, and it was pushing at her, trying to seize control and urge her to give pursuit. To what end, she didn't know, but she resisted with every fiber of strength she could muster, crouched into herself, head touching the ground, her hands clenching the sandy earth as if it were the last solid thing she could cling to. She had to remain _here_. She couldn't move, she couldn't give in. Because if she did…

The pain doubled, and she heard a scream of torment echoing back at her from her own throat. Something was cutting into her head, branding itself into her will.

The screaming stopped, and Yumi suddenly stood. The independent light behind her eyes had died, and the mark of a third eye on her forehead seemed to burn itself deeper into her skin. Without breaking her empty gaze from the retreating target, she waved a hand at the surrounding creatures in restraint.

"No," she breathed, absently feeling the pulse of the virus as it surged through her veins. It was familiar now, no longer something foreign and invading that she needed to fight against.

She turned her blank eyes, still tracking the movement of the pale humanoid, a dark grin with hidden malice playing across her painted, pale features. "I will handle her myself…"

-------------------------

Odd stood in the center of the room, silent and rigid, his gaze locked on the elevator doors where Jeremie had disappeared from sight.

Ulrich was looking at him, a hurt mixture of sorrow, pity, and comfort behind the pain on his features. "…he didn't mean that, Odd…"

His words died in the air, and for another long moment there was silence. Then Odd spoke softly. "Yes…he did."

Ulrich didn't know how to respond. He looked on from where he sat, half-upright, feeling helpless.

Suddenly Odd turned, and was glaring at him. "And what about you? Did you mean what you said?"

Ulrich blinked up at him, confused. "About what?"

"When Xana said you were still a threat, and you agreed with him. Would you have fought him, even in that condition?"

Ulrich's expression darkened. He looked up at the smaller boy, trying to discern the emotion on his features. "If I had to."

"Good," Odd answered sharply, his tone ringing in the surroundings. "Then I'm sure you can get up to the computer room and operate for me."

An expression of shock registered on Ulrich's features. "What?"

Odd was no longer looking at him. Instead, he was crossing the room, heading for the empty, bloodstained scanner. A serious, angry tone of command laced through his words, sounding as though it didn't belong with his voice. "Go up to the computer room and load Aelita's spare sequence into my scanner. I'll use that to get back inside Lyoko." When he heard no response, he turned, glaring at Ulrich. "Jeremie made a spare sequence, didn't he? I'm going back inside Lyoko, and since my sequence is already gone, I'll have to use that one."

Ulrich pulled himself into a standing position, still leaning heavily against the wall. "Odd, you don't have to prove anything—"

"I am _not_ a weak link!" Odd shouted, the fury ringing in the stark surroundings. He glared daggers across the room, his voice lowering as the echo died. "I'm going back inside Lyoko to fight. Are you going to operate for me or not?"

For a moment the two boys stood, staring at each other in silence.

Then, without a word, Ulrich turned, limping towards the elevator, one hand clutched to his side, the other braced against the wall as he moved. He reached the elevator doors, punched the button for them to open, and pulled himself inside.

Odd watched the doors close, then stepped into the scanner.

-------------------------

Aelita ran, strangely aware of the physical fatigue that was suddenly plaguing her body. Her chest felt unpleasantly warm and hollow as she involuntarily gasped for air. Air, which in a place such as Lyoko did not exist, and should not have been necessary. Likewise her legs felt weak, as though she had over-exerted muscles that she technically did not have.

For the time being, Aelita ignored the discomfort and continued to run as fast as she could. The tower was becoming closer and closer, and this time she was sure she could make it.

Unexpectedly, a spiraled turn of cloth and metal whistled past her, inches from striking her torso. Aelita gasped, quickly dodging the lethal fan as it curved in the air to come back at her. She heard it cutting through the atmosphere as it continued past her, heard the impact of the object on flesh as its owner caught it expertly. Aelita didn't look back, didn't even slow down. Yumi was following her now—attacking her—but the last thing she wanted to do was hold her ground and be forced to fight her friend. Besides, she reasoned, Xana's monsters had become silent and still once again. Without them to slow her progress, she could outrun Yumi and make it to the tower first…

A blur of sudden motion caught the corner of her eye, and Aelita turned her head.

Yumi was right beside her, matching every step.

Aelita's eyes widened.

"Running away again, Aelita?" Yumi's voice taunted, and beneath it was a hard, mechanical edge that was not her own. A cruel smile twisted through her features. "You always were a coward, making the rest of us fight your battles for you…"

With a rancorous twist of her stride, Yumi kicked a foot into Aelita's knee. The humanoid went sprawling.

The dark-haired girl lunged at Aelita's fallen form, swinging her arm forward. Light glinted off the edge of her fan as she spun it in her grasp and sliced viciously at Aelita's head.

Instinctively, Aelita backed up and raised her arm, blocking awkwardly. The fan edged cleanly into the now-human flesh.

This time, there was no familiar spark of damage indicating the loss of life points. Instead, the fabric of her sleeve tore open, and the vulnerable skin beneath split to reveal a line of red. Aelita gasped at the sensation. It was as if she were back on earth, feeling a cold wind blowing against her body, the sting of a pebble in her shoe, and the burning of her lungs when she had been running—all ten times worse, and all in the same, small place on her arm.

In desperation, Aelita lunged forward, grabbed Yumi by the shoulders, and _pulsed_. It was nothing more than a short, concentrated burst of gaiakinetic energy, a controlled echo of Lyoko. It was far weaker than her normal summons of power—the meditation and call that could shift the landscape—but she could still feel it drain away some of her life.

Weak as it was, the burst of energy surged through Yumi's form, knocking her flat on her back. She hit the ground and a cloud of dark smoke expulsed from her body like dust that had suddenly been shaken from its resting place. The black tendrils lingered in the air around her figure, and the mark on her forehead flickered like something struggling between rekindling and extinction.

Aelita turned and ran, knowing that the paralysis wouldn't last long. As weak as the pulse had been, she was lucky it had worked at all, and the disruption it caused in Xana's control could only last for a short period of time.

Sure enough, it was only a matter of moments. The dark aura began to spiral inward towards Yumi's prone figure, settling into its victim once more, while Xana's mark seemed to sink ever deeper into her skin.

Yumi lay there for a moment longer, listening to Aelita's desperately retreating footsteps. The dark-haired girl grinned viciously to herself, and began to summon the familiar pale glow of telekinesis. But this time, the simple light was strewn with the darkness that infected it. Yumi's grin grew wider…and she vanished.

Aelita was in mid-stride when the light and smoke burst into existence directly in front of her, and Yumi materialized through an impossible feat of teleportation. The humanoid gasped and tried at the last second to dodge, but it was too late. Yumi held her fan, ready to strike, and she had materialized at point blank range…

Aelita could only gaze in disbelief as Yumi pulled her arm back to send her blade spinning for the lethal stroke—

—and the flash of a silver arrow flew across her vision, striking the fan from Yumi's grasp and sending it careening wildly through the air.

Yumi's head whirled around just in time to see Odd lunging at her. He slammed into her, and the hard collision knocked them both away from Aelita. Odd dug his claws into Yumi's figure, clinging as the two of them rolled across the virtual ground.

Odd came out on top, pinning Yumi to the ground with his knees. He cocked his arrow launcher at her head.

Before he could fire, Yumi grabbed his wrist and twisted. _Hard._

Odd gave an incomprehensible shout in pain. He tried to pull his arm back into position, and in the process two arrows released consecutively, burying their tips into the ground right next to Yumi's left ear.

Yumi's eyes narrowed. She drew her knees up and kicked with both feet, sending Odd flying. He managed to land on his hands and knees, and quickly aimed the arrow launcher at Yumi in an attempt to hit her as she was still clambering to her feet.

But Yumi seemed to know that it was coming, and suddenly vanished in a flash of infected light. Odd's weapon spun through nothing but air.

She reappeared an instant later, just behind Odd. The moment she was solid, she grasped him from behind, wrapping one arm tightly around his neck.

All too aware of the vulnerable position he would be in if she managed to get a good headlock on him, Odd didn't waste a second. Before her arm could fully tighten, he snapped his head up and back as hard as he could, catching her face with the back of his skull.

The impact sent Yumi stumbling back several paces, hissing in pain. She flung her weapon, more with frustration than with aim. Odd back-flipped out of harm's way, landed back on his feet and brought his wrist up to fire again—

—and Yumi's foot smashed into his chest, crushing the air out of his lungs with an exploding force and knocking him flat on his back. For an instant, he was stunned.

The fan came flying back to its owner, and before Odd could regain focus, Yumi flipped the angle of the fan-blade in her hand and stabbed downward at his throat.

At the last second, Odd managed to regain the sense and the strength to bring his hands up and latch onto Yumi's wrist. For a long moment they grappled, Yumi exerting all her strength to press down and bring the edge ever closer to Odd's vulnerable flesh, and Odd digging his claws deep into her arm as he tried to wrest it away. Blood began to trickle down Yumi's forearm where Odd gripped her. The crimson slid over her fingers and onto the blade of the fan, finally dripping onto Odd's neck like a morbid omen.

Yumi grinned wickedly, shoving downward with all her strength and bringing the sharp edge to rest against the already-crimson skin. "_Shinu, chikushou nekko!_"

Odd grit his teeth…and launched an arrow. The projectile tore through the fan, ripping it apart and breaking the grappling stance. With an incomprehensible shout of anger, Yumi recoiled and teleported. She rematerialized a few feet away.

Immediately leaping to his feet, Odd tossed the broken fan blade to the ground. Smirking, he lifted his wrist to eye level and aimed at Yumi's still figure. "What's the matter?" he asked sarcastically, "Feeling defenseless?"

She merely glared and lifted both hands. Dark essence swirled around her palms, taking shape and solidifying into two new fan blades. "Not at all…" she muttered in response to his sarcastic inquiry, a smirk of her own sliding into existence on her features.

Odd didn't even have time to swear before both of the weapons were hurled at him. He rolled to the left, hearing the familiar whining sound as the blades whirled close overhead. Before he had fully come out of his evasive roll, his wrist was up and ready to fire—

—but the only sign that Yumi had been standing before him was the dark-tinted teleportation mist that was already dissipating.

The nekko twisted his head, looking desperately for any sign of where she would reappear. Instead he was greeted again by the sound of metal spinning through air as the fan blades whirled on their return course. Odd turned his attention to the nearest one, sacrificing an arrow in an attempt to destroy it. He swore as his shot went high, and quickly leapt behind the safety of a tree. In the next instant, the buzzing noise stopped with a thud as the fan lodged itself solidly into the other side of the trunk.

He stayed where he was for another moment, his back against the tree, listening, waiting. It was then that he realized that only one of the fans was accounted for…

As if in response to his thoughts, Yumi reappeared in front of him, the second fan in her grasp. Before she was even solid she was swinging the blade at his abdomen, as if to slice him in half.

Already in motion, Odd reached up behind him and grasped the tree bark solidly with his claws, then kicked off the ground as hard as he could in a vertical, backwards somersault. He landed, his stomach pressed against the tree and his feet braced against the rough bark, clinging upside-down to the side of the tree in true squirrel fashion.

Yumi's blade left a gouge in the trunk where he had been standing an instant earlier.

Odd turned his wrist so that the launcher was now level with the center of her forehead, and fired. Yumi blocked the shot quickly with a spin of her fan.

Knowing that it was unwise to stay in the same place for too long, Odd kicked off the tree, leaping over Yumi's head in the hopes of landing behind her and gaining a momentary advantage. It was a mistake.

Yumi grasped the fan tightly in both her hands and stabbed the edge upward as Odd leapt over her. It caught him full in the chest, and she blinked as several drops of warm, red liquid dripped onto her upturned face.

Odd fell heavily, skidding on the ground as he gasped for breath. Between the new rips in his clothes, a long gash traced a scarlet line down his torso. He pressed a furred hand to the wound, gritting his teeth as it stung. But in the next few moments, as the initial pain lessened to more of a throb, he realized that it wasn't very deep.

Yumi grinned at his fallen figure, taking a moment to enjoy the damage she had wrought as she wiped the spatter of blood delicately from her white-painted features. Then the fan was cocked once more in her grasp, and she hurled it at her wounded opponent.

Odd rolled out of the way, feeling the spray of moss and dirt as the fan skimmed along the ground where he'd been. He came up in a semi-sitting position, planning to take full advantage of the moments while Yumi didn't have a fan to serve as a shield. Leveling both arms her smug expression, Odd rapidly fired two arrows from each wrist.

Raising a single hand, Yumi pulsed dark telekinesis. All four arrows arched away from their straight paths, curving around Yumi's figure harmlessly.

And then Yumi was charging him, more smoke and light forming around her palm and shaping itself into yet another fan blade. The weapon solidified and she pulled her arm back as she drew closer, ready to slash in close quarters.

Odd stayed where he was for a moment, teeth grinding with determination. He gauged the distance as she closed in on him, and then, when she was nearly on top of him, he leapt into a back flip. As he landed on his hands, he immediately swung his feet while they were still in midair to catch Yumi full in the stomach with a hard kick.

She doubled over, unable to gasp as the wind left her lungs. Then Odd was on top of her, bringing his fists down on the back of her head with as much force as he could muster.

Yumi hit the ground face first, sputtering in the dirt and trying to regain her senses. She heard the click of the arrow launcher as it loaded another projectile, and she lashed out with her hand in desperation. Her palm closed over Odd's ankle, and she yanked as hard as she could.

Odd felt his foot being twisted out from under him, and he couldn't shift his balance in time. He landed hard on his side as Yumi scrambled to get back on her feet and retrieve her weapon. She snatched it up from where it had skidded to a halt on the ground, then whirled on her heel and flung it with doubled fury. But Odd was already dodging out of harm's way and making an opening for his own renewed attack.

And the deadly game continued…

-------------------------

Aelita caught her breath, watching her two friends fight each other like hated enemies. The last thing she wanted was to see them at each other's throats like this, but at the same time she knew that she should take advantage of the distraction that Odd was providing.

She ducked quickly behind the cover of a large tree. If Odd had been transferred back to Lyoko, someone had to be operating for him.

Taking a guess, Aelita called out to the atmosphere. "Ulrich?"

-------------------------

Ulrich sat on the outside, staring at the screen, feeling strangely angry and helpless. He tried to shift his sitting position in the chair, and immediately regretted it. The wound in his side flared with heated pain, and he grit his teeth, hissing involuntarily. He took his eyes away from the screen for a moment to glance at the wound, and saw the side of the chair slowly soaking up the dark, crimson color. He swore under his breath and let go of the headset, pressing that hand against the wound.

The speaker crackled at him, and he recognized Aelita's voice.

Snatching the headset up again, he pressed it to his ear and listened intently. "Aelita? Aelita, what's going on?"

"_Ulrich_," he heard her repeat his name, her voice serious. "_Are you all right?"_

"I'm fine," he answered, more concerned for his friends inside Lyoko than for himself at the moment. "What about you? Are you okay?"

_"For now."_

"What's going on?"

_"Odd is fighting Yumi."_

Ulrich's eyes scrunched. "He's fighting Yumi? What about Xana's monsters?"

The response was a moment in coming. _"They're still not moving. I think…Yumi's controlling them now."_

"Yumi controlling them?" Ulrich was disbelieving. Then he remembered what had happened when Xana had materialized. "Her scanner…" he breathed.

As though she had heard him, Aelita's next question mirrored his thought. _"Xana did something to Yumi when he materialized, didn't he?_"

Ulrich nodded, a sinking feeling hitting his stomach. "He infected her scanner."

There was a pause before Aelita responded, as though she hadn't wanted to hear that answer. "_Xana's virus is doing more than just forcing her to submit to his control_."

"What do you mean?" Ulrich's voice held a fearful tone.

_"It's causing her to merge with him, and through him, she's becoming a part of Lyoko."_

"What?"

_"I can feel her, Ulrich. Just like I can feel Lyoko, and Xana, and the towers."_

Ulrich was silent for a moment. Then he said darkly, "I'll warn Odd. Maybe he can get her to rematerialize before it causes permanent damage—"

The humanoid shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. _"That's not it."_

A worried tone struck Ulrich's voice. "Then what is it?"

There was a pause before Aelita answered. _"If she's injured too much…she's not going to rematerialize at all."_

-------------------------


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes: **All right, things are gearing up to the climax and heading for the end of the fic! Woo hoo! So we're almost through, but not quite done yet. There will be one more chapter coming, so be sure to check back soon!

Thank you to all the readers who leave me such wonderful comments…I love hearing everyone's thoughts! Right then, on with the story, and you're all going to have to forgive me for not focusing on the fighting so much anymore in this chapter; I'm done with it. :-)

---------------------

Odd ducked, and the fan that had been spinning straight towards him missed, wedging itself into the tree behind him with a solid _thunk_. Then Yumi was charging at him, one fist gathering pale telekinetic energy as she hauled it back, ready to punch at him.

But this time Odd was ready for her. He blocked the swing with his right hand and grasped at her neck with his left. Holding her tightly by the neck, Odd swung her hard against the tree and held her there, pinned. Before she could try to wrest free, he cocked his wrist and fired an arrow into her torso.

He was at point-blank range, and Yumi couldn't teleport fast enough. He heard her give a short gasp of pain just as her form vanished.

She reappeared in midair just above him, connecting her foot to his skull as she fell. Odd crashed to the ground, and Yumi landed deftly on her feet, yanking her fan loose from the tree trunk. She seemed completely oblivious to the smoky, crimson stain that began to spread over her kimono, emanating from the place where Odd's arrow had struck.

Odd swore, trying to ignore the throbbing in his head from the blow. He scrambled to get back on his feet before Yumi came in for another attack…

But she didn't.

In fact, she was standing perfectly still, gazing at him intensely.

Breathing heavily, Odd glared at her, confused. "Come on, _Xana_," he retorted, sarcasm tainting the last word. "What are you waiting for?"

Yumi glared back in reply, and remained unmoving.

Frustrated, Odd released an arrow at her still figure, missing on purpose, but only by mere inches. "Come on, fight me!"

_"Odd, don't hurt her!"_ Ulrich's voice unexpectedly sounded in his ears.

Odd didn't seem to hear. He kept his arm leveled at Yumi, glaring narrowly at her as if she were just another target. "You want me to take this seriously, Xana? Well I am. Now _fight me!_"

_"Damn it, Odd!"_ Ulrich shouted heatedly, the pain behind his voice making him sound even more furious. _"That's Yumi, not Xana! **Don't hurt her!**"_

Odd's voice held a strange note of warning. "Stay out of this, Ulrich…"

_"Odd, you have to listen for once! Xana's virus is going to keep her from rematerializing. If she loses too many life points, she'll be deleted!"_

Odd blinked as the message sank in. Then he let out a growl of frustration. "This day just keeps getting better and better…" He lowered his arm slowly.

Apparently, that was what Yumi had been waiting for. A vicious grin sprang to her features, and she teleported.

"Damn it!" Odd swung his wrist back up, but it was already too late. Yumi reappeared almost on top of him, beginning a new assault with unmatched ferocity. And it was all Odd could do to defend himself…

---------------------

From her sheltered place, Aelita's eyes darted across the scene before her, from Odd and Yumi, to the motionless monsters, and the tower beyond them.

For the moment, Aelita seemed to be perfectly safe. Yumi was distracted with Odd, and the monsters didn't seem to be interested in rousing themselves yet. It looked like if she ran, she could make it to the tower.

But if Yumi saw her – and she would – Yumi could activate the monsters again and it would be simple enough for them to overwhelm her.

She was going to have to take that chance.

Aelita let out a breath. "I'm going to make a run for it."

---------------------

A darting figure caught the corner of Yumi's eye. Distracted from her fight with Odd, she snapped her head around, her features darkening as she saw Aelita making a break for the tower.

Her dark eyes flashed with something more than hatred, and the monsters that until now had remained still began to clatter back to life.

Xana's mark pulsed, sending a clear message to the swarm of minions. _Kill her…_

---------------------

Ulrich's eyes widened in shock as he saw Aelita's marker dart forward across the screen…and the dozen hostile icons that sprang to life to intercept. "Aelita, don't! You've already used up your gaiakinesis, and you've only got fifteen life points left. You can't risk it!"

But it was too late for her to back out now. She tried to respond, but with the sudden movement and activity, her words were indiscernible, broken with the wild static and shrieking sound of laser fire.

"No!" Ulrich grit his teeth and slammed his fist down on the console in frustration, barely noticing the flare of pain it brought to his side.

Unexpectedly, an idea sprang into existence with the sudden pain, and the answer struck him. "Wait! Aelita, hang on, I've got it!" Ulrich called through the headset quickly.

He began to type furiously, heedless of the scarlet that his fingertips were spreading. His eyes blinked over stats on the monitor as he pulled up Odd's information. It was just as he'd thought. Odd still had seventy of his life points from the spare sequence left. That would be plenty.

---------------------

Aelita pelted forward, launching herself into an amazing leap over the Krabe that scuttled viciously towards her. But as she fell back to the earth, she could see the reddened gaze of another monster aiming for her, and in falling there was no way to dodge the impending beam of light…

---------------------

Ulrich's fingers slipped clumsily across the keyboard as he typed as fast as he could. Just another second, and he would be able to transfer Odd's sequence directly to Aelita.

He took an instant to eye the nekko's marker on the screen. "I'm sorry, Odd, but right now, Aelita needs it more than you do."

Ulrich punched the key to execute the code. "Aelita, now!"

---------------------

Yumi twisted her wrist, ready once again to fling her fan—

—and quite unexpectedly, Odd's form began to break apart even though she hadn't hit him yet.

For a moment, Yumi stared, utterly perplexed, as her enemy vanished for no reason.

Then she remembered something very important.

_Ulrich._

He was still on the outside. And when Odd had jumped her, she hadn't had the time to think about the fact that Ulrich must be operating the computer. So if she hadn't caused Odd to rematerialize, then Ulrich must have.

But for what purpose?

Yumi's gaze darted rapidly from Odd's disintegrating figure to Aelita, who was still running for the tower. Yumi gave a snicker. The poor humanoid girl was never going to make it. She was surrounded on all sides by monsters, and her life points were already seriously compromised…

Suddenly Yumi's eyes widened, and the mark on her forehead seemed to shrink and flicker, as though it were afraid. She drew a shuddering, whispered breath as she realized exactly why Odd had disappeared for no reason, and what was about to happen. "Oh, shit…"

And in the next instant, Yumi turned and _ran_. Away from the tower, away from the monsters, and away from Aelita, with one desperate, self-preserving phrase dominating her mind: _get out of range, get out of range, get out of range, GET OUT OF RANGE!_

---------------------

And at the exact same moment, Aelita felt a surge of restoration and life, as though she had entered a tower and healed herself.

She didn't know what Ulrich had managed to do, but it had restored her strength and her abilities.

She dimly heard Ulrich's shout to her, but she didn't need the invitation.

Lyoko was at her command once more.

In an immediate, desperate, violent surge of power, the waves of sound expulsed from Aelita's figure like floodwaters. The solid ground beneath her rippled in response as if it were alive, obeying her sudden will. The trees bent impossibly outward from her fulcrum of power, their seeming solidity rendered to nothing by the violent, transparent explosion. The clear, mournful call that issued from her throat heightened to a ferocity of pitch that penetrated the landscape with devastating results.

Monsters disintegrated, the earth began to crack, and even the void echoed with a sympathetic ringing that made it seem as if the whole of Lyoko were in pain.

And in the wake of destruction, the way to the tower was finally clear.

---------------------

As soon as the elevator arrived at the ground level, Jeremie strode forward at a clipped, angry pace that was close to a run. Xana couldn't have gone far, and Jeremie was going to find him no matter what.

Suddenly Jeremie's foot hit something, and he almost tripped. Biting back a curse, he glared down at the offending object, fully intending to kick it across the room for frustration-alleviation purposes. But when he saw what it was, he stopped.

It was a simple length of hard, black metal, similar to a crowbar, but a little flatter. It appeared to have been snapped in two, and the broken edge looked dangerously sharp.

Jeremie paused, looking at the potentially lethal length of metal. Yumi's words echoed in his head. …_he's going to make himself human…pushing a delete key isn't going to work…_

Jeremie quickly pushed aside any doubts before they could surface and make him think twice. He started forward again, stooping to grab the metal up from the ground and carry it firmly in his grasp as he stepped out of the factory and into the light.

Although the sun and the atmosphere were obliviously cheerful to the situation, the water under the bridge seemed to understand and reflect his mood—dark and foul.

_The water._

Jeremie blinked. It was broad daylight; why wasn't the water reflecting the sun? He spread his gaze across to the right, upstream, and for a moment thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Like a desert mirage, the air above the water seemed to waver, but not with the clear shimmer of a hot, summer day. Instead, the river seemed to be smoking, burning somehow, with purple-black tendrils of tainted liquid spreading thickly through the water.

A sickening feeling struck the depths of Jeremie's stomach as he realized what was going on. He dashed to the edge of the bridge, leaning over to look, only confirming what he already knew. The dark, dense matter was everywhere, spreading like the virus that it was.

It only took a moment to find the figure he was looking for.

Jeremie ran to the other side of the bridge, fury building in his stride. Then, without even bothering to pause or think, he leapt over the edge and down to the concrete riverbank below. The drop was a long one, and definitely not one that any sane person would have attempted. But Jeremie only had one thing on his mind—Xana.

Jeremie fell hard, his feet not able to sustain the landing on their own. His knees buckled and they, too, hit the ground, skidding slightly and tearing at the skin. He had to put his hands out to brace himself and keep from smacking his head and face into the pavement. The metal was still gripped in his right hand, and it scratched at his palm as the concrete ripped at his knuckles. He barely felt the spots of pain though, and was oblivious to any blood as it began to seep from the shredded skin.

He stood, his anger heightened subconsciously by the pain that he wasn't aware of, his gaze locked hatefully on the figure a few yards away. It made him even more furious that, unlike him, the dark-haired humanoid didn't have a scratch.

Xana was crouched at the water's edge, one palm resting serenely in the now-dark flow, his hand and fingertips seeping more and more of the tainted substance into the river. "Simple enough, isn't it?" the humanoid remarked coolly, not bothering to look at Jeremie. "Water is the most abundant chemical compound on this planet of yours, and the most essential substance to human survival, yes?"Now Xana stood, turning to face Jeremie with a hooded expression. "Even you would have to agree with me on this one, Jeremie. It is the most efficient way to spread a virus."

Jeremie clenched his fist tighter around the shard of metal, wanting nothing more than to hurl it at that loathsome, taunting visage. "Damn you, Xana…"

Xana raised a pleased eyebrow at the expression on Jeremie's face. "Did I surprise you again?" he grinned, the oh-so-familiar leer that instigated such hatred. "You must be slipping, Jeremie. There seem to be so many things today that you don't know."

Jeremie hissed through gritted teeth. "I know that right now, you're just as human as I am…"

Now suddenly it was the humanoid who looked mildly surprised. "Yes..." He blinked, then resumed his taunting attitude. "As much as I may have despised regression and materialization in this…disgusting essence, it has proven to be a most ironic transpiring of events, wouldn't you agree? Merging with the enemy to ensure victory…"

---------------------

Aelita slid through the deceptively solid wall of the tower, relief flooding over her as she emerged in the dimly lit interior. The circle of white lights at her feet winked into existence, a gentle acknowledgement of her presence.

She moved into the center, closing her eyes and letting the light lift her figure upwards. She was rising, almost there, and in a few moments she would be on the upper platform, and able to enter the code that would end all this…

---------------------

Jeremie lunged forward and grasped Xana by the collar, flinging his humanoid body down hard against the rocky bank with a viciousness that matched his enemy's. He brought the edge of metal up, pressing its point threateningly into the soft flesh on Xana's neck.

They remained that way for a moment, only silence echoing between them.

And still, Xana smiled. "Waiting for something, Jeremie?" his eyelids lowered halfway, giving him a bored expression. "What's the matter, aren't you going to kill me? Isn't that what you've been trying to do all along? To be rid of me forever? Isn't it what you want?"

A long, shuddering breath escaped Jeremie's lips.

And Xana's grin widened in triumph. "Ah yes, I remember now. You can't do it, can you? Because you know exactly what will happen if you do…"

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Jeremie knew that Xana was only taunting him. It was what he had been doing all along, taunting and mocking and manipulating, pushing him to the edge, trying to make him lose control. And he remembered the virus that Aelita was infected with, and the connection she was forced to share with Xana, in life or death.

He remembered.

He knew.

But somehow, for that one brief, crucial instant…

He didn't care.

---------------------

Inside the tower, Aelita's step suddenly faltered. She clasped a hand to her chest, shocked at the sudden, unexplained pain that wracked through her body. She gasped for air, each breath causing a stabbing sensation, and when she drew her hand away for a moment, it was covered in crimson.

Her legs buckled and she fell to her knees. The familiar screen sprang to existence only a few steps away, waiting for her to place her hand and enter the code. And somehow, those few steps suddenly seemed an impossible distance away…

---------------------

Xana looked down at the wound in his chest, where the black length of metal protruded. The humanoid blinked slowly, genuine surprise on his features. Then he raised his head to face Jeremie. He gurgled, and thick crimson spouted from his lips.

Jeremie still clasped the blunt end of the metal in his white-knuckled grip, pushed hard and deep into Xana's torso.

Suddenly, Xana laughed. It was a bloody, choking sound, bringing another fountain of crimson that congealed and trickled down his chin. But he was smiling, _grinning_ through the scarlet stain. Then the laughter swallowed in on itself, turning into thick, hissing words. "…you do realize what you've done now, Jeremie …"

---------------------

Aelita drew shuddering breaths, watching with an almost detached sense as darkness threatened her vision. Her surroundings seemed to blink out of existence, the surge back with sharp reality as another stab of pain struck her human body.

Then the desperation took hold, and Aelita struggled to pull herself to the hovering screen. Her legs didn't seem to want to respond, but she pushed at them anyway, half-crawling, half-dragging, a slick of bright red now trickling down her side and onto the lighted platform to mark her progress.

The screen was almost within reach, and she stretched out a hand, barely brushing the nonexistence surface. Then it fell away, leaving the screen smeared with crimson. But through the stain, the access codes sprang to life…

---------------------

Xana's weight shifted, and now he was close to Jeremie's face, leaning and falling at the same time, his blood encrusted voice dripping thickly in Jeremie's ear. "…you've given me the victory, Jeremie…because if I die, so does she…"

Jeremie found himself shaking, whether from fear, anger, desperation, or horror, he wasn't sure.

The humanoid's green eyes were glazing over, and still he bore his wicked smile. "…and even if she somehow makes it to the tower…and goes back in time…it still won't matter…"

---------------------

_**AELITA **_

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"…because just as you always return with the past…"

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**_CODE_**

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"…so do I…"

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**_LYOKO_**

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	8. Epilogue

**Author's Notes: **Well, this is it. The last segment of 'Regression.' After this, the story is over. I will admit, I put off posting for a little bit simply because I'm kinda sad to see it end. _Sigh._ Oh well, it was totally fun to write, and I hope to be posting more in the Code Lyoko category in the near future. Thank you to all who gave me reviews and suggestions, you guys are all such awesome readers! I hope you all like the ending. I've been holding off on the angst that I love to write so much, and this is where it all comes out…bwuuaa haa haa…

**: Epilogue :  
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_"Jeremie?"_

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_"Jeremie?"_ Aelita's voice filtered through the computer speakers in Jeremie's room, sounding forlorn and empty. _"Jeremie, are you there?"_ Her screen opened automatically, revealing her familiar features as she gazed out from the computer. 

A moment passed as Aelita seemed to look around. Not finding what she was searching for, she gave a small sigh and disappeared from the screen, the window closing on its own.

Jeremie remained where he was, unmoving, crouched in the small space between his bed and the wall, out of sight of the computer screen. He heard Aelita sigh as she left, and he closed his eyes, a pained expression etched on his features.

The door to his room opened slowly, and another visitor entered; one that he couldn't hide from. He knew she was in front of him, but he didn't raise his eyes. "…go away…" he whispered.

"Why won't you talk to her, Jeremie?" Yumi's voice held nothing but concern and sincerity.

He looked up at her through dry, haunted eyes, holding both hands out slightly, palms up, in a helpless manner. She could see the skin on them, angry and red, as though they had been rubbed raw. "I keep washing them…and I know that since we went back in time, the blood never existed…" He closed his eyes. "But I can still feel it."

She looked at him, silent.

"…I…I _killed_ someone, Yumi…and not only that, I did it at the sacrifice of someone else's life…" Jeremie drew a shuddering breath. "I knew…I knew that he was taunting me…that I shouldn't lose control because of the things he said…and I knew that if…if I gave in, and I killed him…that Aelita would die, too…" The expression on his face was one of pure helplessness. "…and…I did it anyway…" Jeremie suddenly buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably as silent sobs wracked his body. "I can't face her, Yumi…I can't…not after what I did…oh, god, I knew…_and I did it anyway…_"

Yumi extended a comforting hand, and let him cry.

----------------------

Odd whirled, letting himself slide on the icy ground. His figure flew across the frozen surface, underneath the hovering body of a Frolion. The wasp-like creature spun in midair, following the rapid movement of its target, preparing to fire a laser blast.

Odd controlled his slide, twisting his body onto its side and raising an arm straight up, releasing an arrow with deadly aim.

The Frolion shattered.

In the next instant, Odd dug a clawed hand into the ice, halting his sideways motion. Then, with a hard kick, he flung himself into a back flip, expertly evading the incoming fire of two more Frolions. Half upside down, Odd twisted his wrist, sending another arrow straight into one of his targets.

Two down, one to go.

The remaining Frolion immediately took evasive action, zipping behind an outcropping of ice and out of sight.

Odd didn't so much as blink before he sent two more arrows, one right after the other, aimed straight for the ice behind which the Frolion had taken shelter. The first arrow shattered the ice, creating an explosion of frozen particles and snow. The second arrow followed through on its course, slinging through the clouded explosion and straight into the hiding Frolion.

A burst of light and shattered monster joined the icy shrapnel.

Odd stood, now alone on the glacier plane, panting even though he knew he technically didn't have lungs when he was virtualized. Throwing his face up to the sky, he shouted harshly, "Ulrich! Give me more arrows and point me in the next direction!"

It took a moment of hesitation before the other boy's voice answered, filtering statically through Lyoko. _"Odd, you've been through two areas already—"_

"I want a target, Ulrich, not a lecture. Just reload my arrows and show me where the next batch of monsters is hiding!"

Ulrich sighed heavily. _"There are a few Blocks on one of the glaciers to the south. They're just past the deactivated tower."_

Without so much as a 'thank you,' Odd turned on his heel and took off running as hard as he could in the indicated direction.

From atop an overhanging outcrop of ice, Aelita watched his virtualized form with a sad gaze. Turning, she spoke to the air. "How long has he been at it, Ulrich?"

Another sigh. _"Almost two hours, now."_

"And he still will not listen when we ask him to stop…" she said forlornly.

"_He's not listening to anyone right now, Aelita." _Ulrich answered._ "I hate to see him do this to himself, but there's nothing I can do…"_

Her fragile features creased with uncertainty and worry. "I could access his virtualization sequence like we did last time, to lower his life points so that he would rematerialize…but he'll be angry again."

Ulrich shook his head. _"He's already angry, Aelita. And he'll be furious when he's forced to rematerialize, whether it's now or later. But personally, I'd prefer that it be now."_

The humanoid nodded slowly in agreement. "He probably won't speak to me after this, so give him my apologies if you get the chance." Closing her eyes, Aelita concentrated, focusing her connection with Lyoko, honing in on a furiously running figure…

In mid-stride, Odd's form began to destabilize, stripping down to a simple grid, and then into nothing.

----------------------

A scanner hummed to life, activating the materialization sequence automatically. The doors slid open, and Odd practically fell out, landing awkwardly on his hands and knees on the floor of the scanner room. For a moment, the only sound was the echoing of his heavy breathing. Then he slammed a fist hard onto the floor, giving in to a cry of frustration.

A pair of shoes stepped into his line of vision, and he looked up to see Ulrich standing over him, still wearing the headset, along with a worried expression. The dark haired boy extended a hand.

Gritting his teeth, Odd slapped his friend's hand away. "Dammit, Ulrich! You let Aelita drain my life points again, didn't you?" Odd hauled himself angrily to his feet, facing the taller boy with fury drawn in his features.

Ulrich tried to reply gently. "Listen, Odd, you're only going to hurt yourself if you keep this up. We're worried about you and we're trying to help…"

"I don't need anybody's help!" Odd shouted back heatedly. "I am _not _a weak link, and if any of you were really my friends, you'd stop treating me like one!"

"Just because we care about your safety doesn't mean that we think you're weak!" Ulrich shot back.

"And what about when you switched my sequence to Aelita, huh? I wasn't in any danger then, so it wasn't an issue of safety. I still had eighty life points, and you just took them away and forced me to rematerialize!" Odd yelled.

"That was completely different!" Ulrich argued.

Odd ignored his comment and stomped past, heading for the elevator.

"Aelita was about to be deleted, Odd, I had to do _something!_ I didn't have any other choice!"

But Odd still wasn't listening. He punched the elevator button hard. A moment later, he stepped through, and the doors closed over his figure, leaving Ulrich alone.

The dark haired boy shut his eyes.

Aelita's voice filtered softly through the headset. _"…I'm sorry…"_

"Don't be," Ulrich replied. "You didn't do anything wrong. Odd's just having a really hard time with this. The stuff that Xana said really got to him, and the fact that Jeremie flew off the handle with the same issue just made it worse."

Pain edged Aelita's voice as she answered. _"Jeremie hasn't spoken to me, either. It's almost like he's afraid to."_

Ulrich nodded, even though no one could see him. "I know. But…it'll be okay, Aelita. We'll get through this." His hand moved absently to his side, pressing lightly against the place where there should have been a scar. "…we all just need some time to heal…"

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On a parallel plane of existence, a strange mind performed analyses and calculations, lines of code and binary flickering rapidly across a nonexistent surface, interrupted occasionally by coherent lines of text that resembled remnants of the thought processes of something biological…

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_27: Success_

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_Download: Analyses_

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_Save: Analyses _

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…_enjoy your 'time to heal', humans…because it will not last long…_

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Somewhere in the plane of nonexistence, a pair of green eyes flared with expectation, and a sinister face broke slowly into a wide grin.

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_End_


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